Outcast
For the dim regions whence my fathers cameMy spirit, bondaged by the body, longs.Words felt, but never heard, my lips would frame;My soul would sing forgotten jungle songs.I would go back to darkness and to peace,But the great western world holds me in fee,And I may never hope for full releaseWhile to its alien gods I bend my knee.Something in me is lost, forever lost,Some vital thing has gone out of my heart,And I must walk the way of life a ghostAmong the sons of earth, a thing apart;For I was born, far from my native clime,Under the white man’s menace, out of time.
Words in this poem
- jungle n.
- A dense growth of brushwood, grasses, reeds, vines, etc.; an almost impenetrable thicket of trees, canes, and reedy vegetation, as in India, Africa, Australia, and Brazil. [Hind. jangal desert, forest, jungle; Skr. ja desert.]
- ghost n.
- The spirit; the soul of man. [OE. gast, gost, soul, spirit, AS. gast breath, spirit, soul; akin to OS. g spirit, soul, D. geest, G. geist, and prob. to E. gaze, ghastly.]
- clime n.
- A climate; a tract or region of the earth. See Climate. [L. clima. See Climate.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Outcast 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, Outcast, in Harlem Shadows (1922), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #64989, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/mckay-harlem-shadows/outcast.html, id L01372.
Form and metre
Outcast is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 21% 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 ABABCDCD-E-EFF cameA · longsB · frameA · songsB · peaceC · feeD · releaseC · kneeD · lost · heartE · ghost · apartE · climeF · timeF
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 |
|---|---|---|
| For the dim regions whence my fathers came | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| My spirit, bondaged by the body, longs. | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Words felt, but never heard, my lips would frame; | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| My soul would sing forgotten jungle songs. | 10 | ····˘/˘/˘· |
| I would go back to darkness and to peace, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| But the great western world holds me in fee, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| And I may never hope for full release | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| While to its alien gods I bend my knee. | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Something in me is lost, forever lost, | 10 | /˘····˘/˘· |
| Some vital thing has gone out of my heart, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| And I must walk the way of life a ghost | 10 | ·········· |
| Among the sons of earth, a thing apart; | 10 | ········˘/ |
| For I was born, far from my native clime, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Under the white man’s menace, out of time. | 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.