Karintha
Her skin is like dusk on the eastern horizon,O cant you see it, O cant you see it,Her skin is like dusk on the eastern horizon... When the sun goes down.
Her skin is like dusk,O cant you see it,Her skin is like dusk,When the sun goes down.
Smoke is on the hills. Rise up.Smoke is on the hills, O riseAnd take my soul to Jesus.
Her skin is like dusk on the eastern horizon,O cant you see it, O cant you see it,Her skin is like dusk on the eastern horizon... When the sun goes down.
About this text
Karintha 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, Karintha, in Cane (1923), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #60093, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/toomer-cane/karintha.html, id L01557.
Form and metre
Karintha is 15 lines in 4 stanzas. 89% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.9 syllables. 5 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 20% 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 A-AA horizonA · it · horizonA · downA
- 2 A-A- duskA · it · duskA · down
- 4 A-AA horizonA · it · horizonA · downA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Her skin is like dusk on the eastern horizon, | 12 | ·······/˘˘/˘ |
| O cant you see it, O cant you see it, | 10 | ·········· |
| Her skin is like dusk on the eastern horizon | 12 | ·······/˘˘/˘ |
| ... When the sun goes down. | 5 | ····· |
| Her skin is like dusk, | 5 | ····· |
| O cant you see it, | 5 | ····· |
| Her skin is like dusk, | 5 | ····· |
| When the sun goes down. | 5 | ····· |
| Smoke is on the hills. Rise up. | 7 | ······· |
| Smoke is on the hills, O rise | 7 | ······· |
| And take my soul to Jesus. | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Her skin is like dusk on the eastern horizon, | 12 | ·······/˘˘/˘ |
| O cant you see it, O cant you see it, | 10 | ·········· |
| Her skin is like dusk on the eastern horizon | 12 | ·······/˘˘/˘ |
| ... When the sun goes down. | 5 | ····· |
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.