Jasmines
Your scent is in the room.Swiftly it overwhelms and conquers me!Jasmines, night jasmines, perfect of perfume,Heavy with dew before the dawn of day!Your face was in the mirror. I could seeYou smile and vanish suddenly away,Leaving behind the vestige of a tear.Sad suffering face, from parting grown so dear!Night jasmines cannot bloom in this cold place;Without the street is wet and weird with snow;The cold nude trees are tossing to and fro;Too stormy is the night for your fond face;For your low voice too loud the wind’s mad roar.But oh, your scent is here--jasmines that growLuxuriant, clustered round your cottage door!
About this text
Jasmines 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, Jasmines, in Harlem Shadows (1922), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #64989, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/mckay-harlem-shadows/jasmines.html, id L01405.
Form and metre
Jasmines is 15 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABACBCDDEFFEGFG. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 81%). 92% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.7 syllables. 13% 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 ABACBCDDEFFEGFG roomA · meB · perfumeA · dayC · seeB · awayC · tearD · dearD · placeE · snowF · froF · faceE · roarG · growF · doorG
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 scent is in the room. | 6 | ······ |
| Swiftly it overwhelms and conquers me! | 10 | /˘··˘/·/˘· |
| Jasmines, night jasmines, perfect of perfume, | 10 | /˘·/˘/··˘/ |
| Heavy with dew before the dawn of day! | 10 | /˘········ |
| Your face was in the mirror. I could see | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| You smile and vanish suddenly away, | 10 | ···/˘/˘˘˘/ |
| Leaving behind the vestige of a tear. | 10 | /˘···/˘··· |
| Sad suffering face, from parting grown so dear! | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Night jasmines cannot bloom in this cold place; | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| Without the street is wet and weird with snow; | 10 | ·········· |
| The cold nude trees are tossing to and fro; | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Too stormy is the night for your fond face; | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| For your low voice too loud the wind’s mad roar. | 10 | ·········· |
| But oh, your scent is here--jasmines that grow | 10 | ······/˘·· |
| Luxuriant, clustered round your cottage door! | 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.