Blood-Burning Moon
Red nigger moon. Sinner!Blood-burning moon. Sinner!Come out that fact’ry door.
“I said I would an there aint no mo to it. But that aint th talk f now.Sing, honey Louisa, an while I’m listenin t y I’ll be makin love.”
Red nigger moon. Sinner!Blood-burning moon. Sinner!Come out that fact’ry door.
Again he lunged. Tom side-stepped and flung him to the ground.Straddled him.
Tom yanked him up and began hammering at him. Each blow sounded as ifit smashed into a precious, irreplaceable soft something. Beneath them,Bob staggered back. He reached in his pocket and whipped out a knife.
Red nigger moon. Sinner!Blood-burning moon. Sinner!Come out that fact’ry door.
Words in this poem
- nigger n.
- A negro; -- in vulgar derision or depreciation.
- sinner n.
- One who has sinned; especially, one who has sinned without repenting; hence, a persistent and incorrigible transgressor; one condemned by the law of God.
- lunged a.
- Having lungs, or breathing organs similar to lungs.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Blood-Burning Moon is in the public domain. This text is taken from Cane, Project Gutenberg ebook #60093; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Jean Toomer, Blood-Burning Moon, in Cane (1923), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #60093, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/toomer-cane/blood-burning-moon.html, id L01570.
Form and metre
Blood-Burning Moon is 16 lines in 6 stanzas. 72% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.6 syllables. 6 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 6% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 AA- sinnerA · sinnerA · door
- 3 AA- sinnerA · sinnerA · door
- 6 AA- sinnerA · sinnerA · door
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Red nigger moon. Sinner! | 6 | ·/˘·/˘ |
| Blood-burning moon. Sinner! | 6 | ·/˘·/˘ |
| Come out that fact’ry door. | 6 | ······ |
| “I said I would an there aint no mo to it. But that aint th talk f now. | 17 | ················· |
| Sing, honey Louisa, an while I’m listenin t y I’ll be makin love.” | 19 | ·/˘˘/˘··········/˘· |
| Red nigger moon. Sinner! | 6 | ·/˘·/˘ |
| Blood-burning moon. Sinner! | 6 | ·/˘·/˘ |
| Come out that fact’ry door. | 6 | ······ |
| Again he lunged. Tom side-stepped and flung him to the ground. | 13 | ˘/··········· |
| Straddled him. | 3 | /˘· |
| Tom yanked him up and began hammering at him. Each blow sounded as if | 17 | ·····˘//˘····/˘·· |
| it smashed into a precious, irreplaceable soft something. Beneath them, | 16 | ·····/˘˘/˘·/˘··· |
| Bob staggered back. He reached in his pocket and whipped out a knife. | 15 | ·/˘·····/˘····· |
| Red nigger moon. Sinner! | 6 | ·/˘·/˘ |
| Blood-burning moon. Sinner! | 6 | ·/˘·/˘ |
| Come out that fact’ry door. | 6 | ······ |
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.