To a Poet
There is a lovely noise about your name,Above the shoutings of the city clear,More than a moment’s merriment, whose claimWill greater grow with every mellowed year.
The people will not bear you down the street,Dancing to the strong rhythm of your words,The modern kings will throttle you to greetThe piping voice of artificial birds.
But the rare lonely spirits, even mine,Who love the immortal music of all days,Will see the glory of your trailing line,The bedded beauty of your haunting lays.
Words in this poem
- throttle n.
- The windpipe, or trachea; the weasand. [Dim. of throat. See Throat.]
- piping a.
- Playing on a musical pipe. [From Pipe, v.]
- bedded a.
- Provided with a bed; as, double-bedded room; placed or arranged in a bed or beds.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To a Poet 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, To a Poet, in Harlem Shadows (1922), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #64989, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/mckay-harlem-shadows/to-a-poet.html, id L01383.
Form and metre
To a Poet 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 89%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 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 nameA · clearB · claimA · yearB
- 2 ABAB streetA · wordsB · greetA · birdsB
- 3 ABAB mineA · daysB · lineA · laysB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| There is a lovely noise about your name, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Above the shoutings of the city clear, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| More than a moment’s merriment, whose claim | 10 | ···/˘/˘˘·· |
| Will greater grow with every mellowed year. | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| The people will not bear you down the street, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Dancing to the strong rhythm of your words, | 10 | /˘···/˘··· |
| The modern kings will throttle you to greet | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| The piping voice of artificial birds. | 10 | ·/˘···˘/˘· |
| But the rare lonely spirits, even mine, | 10 | ···/˘/˘/˘· |
| Who love the immortal music of all days, | 11 | ···˘/˘/˘··· |
| Will see the glory of your trailing line, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| The bedded beauty of your haunting lays. | 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.