A Red Flower
Your lips are like a southern lily red,Wet with the soft rain-kisses of the night,In which the brown bee buries deep its head,When still the dawn’s a silver sea of light.
Your lips betray the secret of your soul,The dark delicious essence that is you,A mystery of life, the flaming goalI seek through mazy pathways strange and new.
Your lips are the red symbol of a dream.What visions of warm lilies they impart,That line the green bank of a fair blue stream,With butterflies and bees close to each heart!
Brown bees that murmur sounds of music rare,That softly fall upon the languorous breeze,Wafting them gently on the quiet airAmong untended avenues of trees.
O were I hovering, a bee, to probeDeep down within your scented heart, fair flower,Enfolded by your soft vermilion robe,Amorous of sweets, for but one perfect hour!
Words in this poem
- languorous a.
- Producing, or tending to produce, languor; characterized by languor. [From Languor: cf. F. langoureux.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Red Flower is in the public domain. This text is taken from Harlem shadows, Project Gutenberg ebook #64989; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Claude McKay, A Red Flower, in Harlem Shadows (1922), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #64989, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/mckay-harlem-shadows/a-red-flower.html, id L01390.
Form and metre
A Red Flower is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 15% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 ABAB redA · nightB · headA · lightB
- 2 ABAB soulA · youB · goalA · newB
- 3 ABAB dreamA · impartB · streamA · heartB
- 4 ABAB rareA · breezeB · airA · treesB
- 5 ABAB probeA · flowerB · robeA · hourB
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Your lips are like a southern lily red, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| Wet with the soft rain-kisses of the night, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| In which the brown bee buries deep its head, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| When still the dawn’s a silver sea of light. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Your lips betray the secret of your soul, | 10 | ··˘/·/˘··· |
| The dark delicious essence that is you, | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘··· |
| A mystery of life, the flaming goal | 10 | ·/˘˘···/˘· |
| I seek through mazy pathways strange and new. | 10 | ···/˘/···· |
| Your lips are the red symbol of a dream. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| What visions of warm lilies they impart, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘·˘/ |
| That line the green bank of a fair blue stream, | 10 | ·········· |
| With butterflies and bees close to each heart! | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Brown bees that murmur sounds of music rare, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| That softly fall upon the languorous breeze, | 11 | ·/˘····/˘˘· |
| Wafting them gently on the quiet air | 10 | /˘·/˘··/˘· |
| Among untended avenues of trees. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| O were I hovering, a bee, to probe | 10 | ···/˘˘···· |
| Deep down within your scented heart, fair flower, | 11 | ·····/˘··/˘ |
| Enfolded by your soft vermilion robe, | 10 | ˘/˘···˘/˘· |
| Amorous of sweets, for but one perfect hour! | 10 | /˘·····˘// |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.