One Year After I
Not once in all our days of poignant love,Did I a single instant give to theeMy undivided being wholly free.Not all thy potent passion could removeThe barrier that loomed between to proveThe full supreme surrendering of me.Oh, I was beaten, helpless utterlyAgainst the shadow-fact with which I strove.For when a cruel power forced me to faceThe truth which poisoned our illicit wine,That even I was faithless to my raceBleeding beneath the iron hand of thine,Our union seemed a monstrous thing and base!I was an outcast from thy world and mine.
Words in this poem
- poignant a.
- Pricking; piercing; sharp; pungent. [F., p. pr. of poindre to sting, fr. L. pungere to prick, sting. See Pungent.]
- outcast a.
- Cast out; degraded. [Cf. Sw. utkasta to cast out.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
One Year After I 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, One Year After I, in Harlem Shadows (1922), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #64989, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/mckay-harlem-shadows/one-year-after-i.html, id L01402.
Form and metre
One Year After I is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 86% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 43% 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 ABBAAB--CDCDCD loveA · theeB · freeB · removeA · proveA · meB · utterly · strove · faceC · wineD · raceC · thineD · baseC · mineD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Not once in all our days of poignant love, | 10 | ····/··/˘· |
| Did I a single instant give to thee | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| My undivided being wholly free. | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘/˘· |
| Not all thy potent passion could remove | 10 | ···/˘/˘·˘/ |
| The barrier that loomed between to prove | 10 | ·/˘˘······ |
| The full supreme surrendering of me. | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘˘·· |
| Oh, I was beaten, helpless utterly | 10 | ···/˘/˘/˘˘ |
| Against the shadow-fact with which I strove. | 10 | ···/······ |
| For when a cruel power forced me to face | 10 | ···//˘···· |
| The truth which poisoned our illicit wine, | 10 | ···/˘/˘/˘· |
| That even I was faithless to my race | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Bleeding beneath the iron hand of thine, | 10 | /˘···/˘··· |
| Our union seemed a monstrous thing and base! | 10 | //˘··/˘··· |
| I was an outcast from thy world and mine. | 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.