Polarity
Nay, why reproach each other, be unkind,For there’s no plane on which we two may meet?Let’s both forgive, forget, for both were blind,And life is of a day, and time is fleet.
And I am fire, swift to flame and burn,Melting with elements high overhead,While you are water in an earthly urn,All pure, but heavy, and of hue like lead.
Words in this poem
- unkind a.
- Having no race or kindred; childless. [See Kin kindred.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Polarity 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, Polarity, in Harlem Shadows (1922), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #64989, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/mckay-harlem-shadows/polarity.html, id L01401.
Form and metre
Polarity is 8 lines in 2 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables.
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 unkindA · meetB · blindA · fleetB
- 2 ABAB burnA · overheadB · urnA · leadB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Nay, why reproach each other, be unkind, | 10 | ··˘/·/˘·˘/ |
| For there’s no plane on which we two may meet? | 10 | ·········· |
| Let’s both forgive, forget, for both were blind, | 10 | ··˘/˘/···· |
| And life is of a day, and time is fleet. | 10 | ·········· |
| And I am fire, swift to flame and burn, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Melting with elements high overhead, | 10 | /˘·/˘˘·/˘/ |
| While you are water in an earthly urn, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| All pure, but heavy, and of hue like lead. | 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.