Romance
To clasp you now and feel your head close-pressed,Scented and warm against my beating breast;
To whisper soft and quivering your name,And drink the passion burning in your frame;
To lie at full length, taut, with cheek to cheek,And tease your mouth with kisses till you speak
Love words, mad words, dream words, sweet senseless words,Melodious like notes of mating birds;
To hear you ask if I shall love always,And myself answer: Till the end of days;
To feel your easeful sigh of happinessWhen on your trembling lips I murmur: Yes;
It is so sweet. We know it is not true.What matters it? The night must shed her dew.
We know it is not true, but it is sweet--The poem with this music is complete.
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,]
- easeful a.
- Full of ease; suitable for affording ease or rest; quiet; comfortable; restful.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Romance 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, Romance, in Harlem Shadows (1922), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #64989, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/mckay-harlem-shadows/romance.html, id L01393.
Form and metre
Romance is 16 lines in 8 stanzas of 2 lines each. It is in rhyming couplets: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%). 91% 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. 12% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in heroic couplets, 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 AA pressedA · breastA
- 2 AA nameA · frameA
- 3 AA cheekA · speakA
- 4 AA wordsA · birdsA
- 5 AA alwaysA · daysA
- 6 AA happinessA · yesA
- 7 AA trueA · dewA
- 8 AA sweetA · completeA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| To clasp you now and feel your head close-pressed, | 10 | ·········· |
| Scented and warm against my beating breast; | 10 | /˘·····/˘· |
| To whisper soft and quivering your name, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘˘·· |
| And drink the passion burning in your frame; | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| To lie at full length, taut, with cheek to cheek, | 10 | ·········· |
| And tease your mouth with kisses till you speak | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Love words, mad words, dream words, sweet senseless words, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Melodious like notes of mating birds; | 10 | ˘/˘˘···/˘· |
| To hear you ask if I shall love always, | 10 | ········/· |
| And myself answer: Till the end of days; | 10 | ··//˘····· |
| To feel your easeful sigh of happiness | 10 | ···/˘··/˘˘ |
| When on your trembling lips I murmur: Yes; | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| It is so sweet. We know it is not true. | 10 | ·········· |
| What matters it? The night must shed her dew. | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| We know it is not true, but it is sweet-- | 10 | ·········· |
| The poem with this music is complete. | 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.