The Harlem Dancer
Applauding youths laughed with young prostitutesAnd watched her perfect, half-clothed body sway;Her voice was like the sound of blended flutesBlown by black players upon a picnic day.She sang and danced on gracefully and calm,The light gauze hanging loose about her form;To me she seemed a proudly-swaying palmGrown lovelier for passing through a storm.Upon her swarthy neck black shiny curlsLuxuriant fell; and tossing coins in praise,The wine-flushed, bold-eyed boys, and even the girls,Devoured her shape with eager, passionate gaze;But looking at her falsely-smiling face,I knew her self was not in that strange place.
Words in this poem
- shiny a.
- Bright; luminous; clear; unclouded.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Harlem Dancer 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, The Harlem Dancer, in Harlem Shadows (1922), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #64989, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/mckay-harlem-shadows/the-harlem-dancer.html, id L01369.
Form and metre
The Harlem Dancer is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABABCDCDEFEFGG, the pattern of the English sonnet. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 29% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other English sonnets, 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 ABABCDCDEFEFGG prostitutesA · swayB · flutesA · dayB · calmC · formD · palmC · stormD · curlsE · praiseF · girlsE · gazeF · faceG · placeG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Applauding youths laughed with young prostitutes | 10 | ˘/˘····/˘· |
| And watched her perfect, half-clothed body sway; | 10 | ···/···/˘· |
| Her voice was like the sound of blended flutes | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Blown by black players upon a picnic day. | 11 | ···/˘···/·· |
| She sang and danced on gracefully and calm, | 10 | ·····/˘˘·· |
| The light gauze hanging loose about her form; | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| To me she seemed a proudly-swaying palm | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| Grown lovelier for passing through a storm. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Upon her swarthy neck black shiny curls | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Luxuriant fell; and tossing coins in praise, | 10 | ˘/˘··/˘··· |
| The wine-flushed, bold-eyed boys, and even the girls, | 10 | ·······/·· |
| Devoured her shape with eager, passionate gaze; | 10 | ˘/···/˘/˘· |
| But looking at her falsely-smiling face, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| I knew her self was not in that strange place. | 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.