Thirst
My spirit wails for water, water now!My tongue is aching dry, my throat is hotFor water, fresh rain shaken from a bough,Or dawn dews heavy in some leafy spot.My hungry body’s burning for a swimIn sunlit water where the air is cool,As in Trout Valley where upon a limbThe golden finch sings sweetly to the pool.Oh water, water, when the night is done,When day steals gray-white through the windowpane,Clear silver water when I wake, alone,All impotent of parts, of fevered brain;Pure water from a forest fountain first,To wash me, cleanse me, and to quench my thirst!
Words in this poem
- aching a.
- That aches; continuously painful. See Ache.
- sunlit a.
- Lighted by the sun.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Thirst 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, Thirst, in Harlem Shadows (1922), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #64989, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/mckay-harlem-shadows/thirst.html, id L01408.
Form and metre
Thirst is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 99% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 21% 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 ABABCDCD-E-EFF nowA · hotB · boughA · spotB · swimC · coolD · limbC · poolD · done · windowpaneE · alone · brainE · firstF · thirstF
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 |
|---|---|---|
| My spirit wails for water, water now! | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| My tongue is aching dry, my throat is hot | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| For water, fresh rain shaken from a bough, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Or dawn dews heavy in some leafy spot. | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| My hungry body’s burning for a swim | 10 | ·/˘/˘/˘··· |
| In sunlit water where the air is cool, | 10 | ·/·/˘····· |
| As in Trout Valley where upon a limb | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| The golden finch sings sweetly to the pool. | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Oh water, water, when the night is done, | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| When day steals gray-white through the windowpane, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Clear silver water when I wake, alone, | 10 | ·/˘/˘···˘/ |
| All impotent of parts, of fevered brain; | 10 | ·/˘˘···/˘· |
| Pure water from a forest fountain first, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| To wash me, cleanse me, and to quench my thirst! | 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.