I Shall Return
I shall return again; I shall returnTo laugh and love and watch with wonder-eyesAt golden noon the forest fires burn,Wafting their blue-black smoke to sapphire skies.I shall return to loiter by the streamsThat bathe the brown blades of the bending grasses,And realize once more my thousand dreamsOf waters rushing down the mountain passes.I shall return to hear the fiddle and fifeOf village dances, dear delicious tunesThat stir the hidden depths of native life,Stray melodies of dim remembered runes.I shall return, I shall return again,To ease my mind of long, long years of pain.
Words in this poem
- 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,]
- realize v. t.
- To make real; to convert from the imaginary or fictitious into the actual; to bring into concrete existence; to accomplish; as, to realize a scheme or project. [Cf. F. réaliser.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
I Shall Return 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, I Shall Return, in Harlem Shadows (1922), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #64989, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/mckay-harlem-shadows/i-shall-return.html, id L01361.
Form and metre
I Shall Return is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABABCDCDEFEFGG, the pattern of the English sonnet. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%). 93% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 43% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other English sonnets, 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 ABABCDCDEFEFGG returnA · eyesB · burnA · skiesB · streamsC · grassesD · dreamsC · passesD · fifeE · tunesF · lifeE · runesF · againG · painG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I shall return again; I shall return | 10 | ··˘/˘/··˘/ |
| To laugh and love and watch with wonder-eyes | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| At golden noon the forest fires burn, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| Wafting their blue-black smoke to sapphire skies. | 10 | /˘·····/˘· |
| I shall return to loiter by the streams | 10 | ··˘/·/˘··· |
| That bathe the brown blades of the bending grasses, | 11 | ·······/˘/˘ |
| And realize once more my thousand dreams | 9 | ·/····/˘· |
| Of waters rushing down the mountain passes. | 11 | ·/˘/˘··/˘/˘ |
| I shall return to hear the fiddle and fife | 11 | ··˘/···/˘·· |
| Of village dances, dear delicious tunes | 10 | ·/˘/˘·˘/˘· |
| That stir the hidden depths of native life, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Stray melodies of dim remembered runes. | 10 | ·/˘˘··˘/˘· |
| I shall return, I shall return again, | 10 | ··˘/··˘/˘/ |
| To ease my mind of long, long years of pain. | 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.