Alfonso, Dressing to Wait at Table
Alfonso is a handsome bronze-hued ladOf subtly-changing and surprising parts;His moods are storms that frighten and make glad,His eyes were made to capture women’s hearts.
Down in the glory-hole Alfonso singsAn olden song of wine and clinking glassesAnd riotous rakes; magnificently flingsGay kisses to imaginary lasses.
Alfonso’s voice of mellow music thrillsOur swaying forms and steals our hearts with joy;And when he soars, his fine falsetto trillsAre rarest notes of gold without alloy.
But, O Alfonso! wherefore do you singDream-songs of carefree men and ancient places?Soon we shall be beset by clamouringOf hungry and importunate palefaces.
Words in this poem
- olden a.
- Old; ancient; as, the olden time.
- magnificently adv.
- In a Magnificent manner.
- falsetto n.
- A false or artificial voice; that voice in a man which lies above his natural voice; the male counter tenor or alto voice. See Head voice, under Voice. [It. falsetto, dim. fr. L. falsus. See False.]
- wherefore adv.
- For which reason; so; -- used relatively. [Where + for.]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Alfonso, Dressing to Wait at Table 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, Alfonso, Dressing to Wait at Table, in Harlem Shadows (1922), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #64989, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/mckay-harlem-shadows/alfonso-dressing-to-wait-at-table.html, id L01337.
Form and metre
Alfonso, Dressing to Wait at Table is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 92% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.3 syllables. 4 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 50% 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 ladA · partsB · gladA · heartsB
- 2 ABAB singsA · glassesB · flingsA · lassesB
- 3 ABAB thrillsA · joyB · trillsA · alloyB
- 4 ABAB singA · placesB · clamouringA · palefacesB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Alfonso is a handsome bronze-hued lad | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Of subtly-changing and surprising parts; | 10 | ·/˘/˘·˘/˘· |
| His moods are storms that frighten and make glad, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| His eyes were made to capture women’s hearts. | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| Down in the glory-hole Alfonso sings | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| An olden song of wine and clinking glasses | 11 | ·/˘····/˘/˘ |
| And riotous rakes; magnificently flings | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘˘˘· |
| Gay kisses to imaginary lasses. | 11 | ·/˘·˘/˘·˘/˘ |
| Alfonso’s voice of mellow music thrills | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| Our swaying forms and steals our hearts with joy; | 10 | //˘···/··· |
| And when he soars, his fine falsetto trills | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| Are rarest notes of gold without alloy. | 10 | ·/˘·····/· |
| But, O Alfonso! wherefore do you sing | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Dream-songs of carefree men and ancient places? | 11 | ···/···/˘/˘ |
| Soon we shall be beset by clamouring | 10 | ····˘/·/˘˘ |
| Of hungry and importunate palefaces. | 12 | ·/˘·˘/˘˘···· |
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.