Wild May
Aleta mentions in her tender letters,Among a chain of quaint and touching things,That you are feeble, weighted down with fetters,And given to strange deeds and mutterings.No longer without trace or thought of fear,Do you leap to and ride the rebel roan;But have become the victim of grim care,With three brown beauties to support alone.But none the less will you be in my mind,Wild May that cantered by the risky ways,With showy head-cloth flirting in the wind,From market in the glad December days;Wild May of whom even other girls could raveBefore sex tamed your spirit, made you slave.
Words in this poem
- quaint a.
- Prudent; wise; hence, crafty; artful; wily. [OE. queint, queynte, coint, prudent, wise, cunning, pretty, odd, OF. cointe cultivated, amiable, agreeable, neat, fr. L. cognitus known, p. p. of cognoscere to ]
- rebel a.
- Pertaining to rebels or rebellion; acting in revolt; rebellious; as, rebel troops. [F. rebelle, fr. L. rebellis. See Rebel, v. t.]
- roan a.
- Having a bay, chestnut, brown, or black color, with gray or white thickly interspersed; -- said of a horse. [F. rouan; cf. Sp. roano, ruano, It. rovano, roano.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Wild May 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, Wild May, in Harlem Shadows (1922), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #64989, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/mckay-harlem-shadows/wild-may.html, id L01347.
Form and metre
Wild May 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 92%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 7% 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 lettersA · thingsB · fettersA · mutteringsB · fearC · roanD · careC · aloneD · mindE · waysF · windE · daysF · raveG · slaveG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Aleta mentions in her tender letters, | 11 | ˘/˘/˘··/˘/˘ |
| Among a chain of quaint and touching things, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| That you are feeble, weighted down with fetters, | 11 | ···/˘/˘··/˘ |
| And given to strange deeds and mutterings. | 10 | ·/˘····/˘˘ |
| No longer without trace or thought of fear, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Do you leap to and ride the rebel roan; | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| But have become the victim of grim care, | 10 | ··˘/·/˘··· |
| With three brown beauties to support alone. | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘/ |
| But none the less will you be in my mind, | 10 | ·········· |
| Wild May that cantered by the risky ways, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| With showy head-cloth flirting in the wind, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| From market in the glad December days; | 10 | ·/˘···˘/˘· |
| Wild May of whom even other girls could rave | 10 | ····//˘··· |
| Before sex tamed your spirit, made you slave. | 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.