Subway Wind
Far down, down through the city’s great, gaunt gutThe gray train rushing bears the weary wind;In the packed cars the fans the crowd’s breath cut,Leaving the sick and heavy air behind.And pale-cheeked children seek the upper doorTo give their summer jackets to the breeze;Their laugh is swallowed in the deafening roarOf captive wind that moans for fields and seas;Seas cooling warm where native schooners driftThrough sleepy waters, while gulls wheel and sweep,Waiting for windy waves the keels to liftLightly among the islands of the deep;Islands of lofty palm trees blooming whiteThat lend their perfume to the tropic sea,Where fields lie idle in the dew drenched night,And the Trades float above them fresh and free.
Words in this poem
- gaunt a.
- Attenuated, as with fasting or suffering; lean; meager; pinched and grim. [Cf. Norw. gand a thin pointed stick, a tall and thin man, and W. gwan weak.]
- deafening n.
- The act or process of rendering impervious to sound, as a floor or wall; also, the material with which the spaces are filled in this process; pugging.
- cooling a.
- Adapted to cool and refresh; allaying heat.
- keels n.
- Ninepins. See Kayles.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Subway Wind 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, Subway Wind, in Harlem Shadows (1922), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #64989, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/mckay-harlem-shadows/subway-wind.html, id L01380.
Form and metre
Subway Wind is 16 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABABCDCDEFEFGHGH. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%). 85% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 38% 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 ABABCDCDEFEFGHGH gutA · windB · cutA · behindB · doorC · breezeD · roarC · seasD · driftE · sweepF · liftE · deepF · whiteG · seaH · nightG · freeH
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Far down, down through the city’s great, gaunt gut | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| The gray train rushing bears the weary wind; | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| In the packed cars the fans the crowd’s breath cut, | 10 | ·········· |
| Leaving the sick and heavy air behind. | 10 | /˘···/˘··· |
| And pale-cheeked children seek the upper door | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| To give their summer jackets to the breeze; | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Their laugh is swallowed in the deafening roar | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Of captive wind that moans for fields and seas; | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Seas cooling warm where native schooners drift | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| Through sleepy waters, while gulls wheel and sweep, | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| Waiting for windy waves the keels to lift | 10 | /˘·/˘····· |
| Lightly among the islands of the deep; | 10 | /˘···/˘··· |
| Islands of lofty palm trees blooming white | 10 | /˘·/˘··/˘· |
| That lend their perfume to the tropic sea, | 10 | ···˘/··/˘· |
| Where fields lie idle in the dew drenched night, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| And the Trades float above them fresh and free. | 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.