The Tropics in New York
Bananas ripe and green, and ginger-root,Cocoa in pods and alligator pears,And tangerines and mangoes and grape fruit,Fit for the highest prize at parish fairs,
Set in the window, bringing memoriesOf fruit-trees laden by low-singing rills,And dewy dawns, and mystical blue skiesIn benediction over nun-like hills.
My eyes grew dim, and I could no more gaze;A wave of longing through my body swept,And, hungry for the old, familiar ways,I turned aside and bowed my head and wept.
About this text
The Tropics in New York 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 Tropics in New York, in Harlem Shadows (1922), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #64989, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/mckay-harlem-shadows/the-tropics-in-new-york.html, id L01338.
Form and metre
The Tropics in New York is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 94% 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. 17% 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 ABAB rootA · pearsB · fruitA · fairsB
- 2 ABAB memoriesA · rillsB · skiesA · hillsB
- 3 ABAB gazeA · sweptB · waysA · weptB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Bananas ripe and green, and ginger-root, | 10 | ˘/˘····/˘· |
| Cocoa in pods and alligator pears, | 10 | /˘···/˘·˘· |
| And tangerines and mangoes and grape fruit, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Fit for the highest prize at parish fairs, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Set in the window, bringing memories | 10 | ···/˘/˘/˘˘ |
| Of fruit-trees laden by low-singing rills, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| And dewy dawns, and mystical blue skies | 10 | ·/˘··/˘˘·· |
| In benediction over nun-like hills. | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| My eyes grew dim, and I could no more gaze; | 10 | ·········· |
| A wave of longing through my body swept, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| And, hungry for the old, familiar ways, | 10 | ·/˘···˘/˘· |
| I turned aside and bowed my head and wept. | 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.