Theater
Girls laugh and shout. Sing discordant snatches of other jazz songs.Whirl with loose passion into the arms of passing show-men.
Dorris tosses her head and dances for him until she feels she has him.Then, withdrawing disdainfully, she flirts with the director.
They are in a room. John knows nothing of it. Only, that theflesh and blood of Dorris are its walls. Singing walls. Lights,soft, as if they shine through clear pink fingers. Soft lights,and warm.
About this text
Theater 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, Theater, in Cane (1923), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #60093, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/toomer-cane/theater.html, id L01575.
Form and metre
Theater is 8 lines in 3 stanzas. 74% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 13.0 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 12% 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.
- 3 -AA- the · lightsA · lightsA · warm
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Girls laugh and shout. Sing discordant snatches of other jazz songs. | 15 | ·····˘/˘/˘·/˘·· |
| Whirl with loose passion into the arms of passing show-men. | 14 | ···/˘·····/˘·· |
| Dorris tosses her head and dances for him until she feels she has him. | 18 | /˘/˘···/˘········· |
| Then, withdrawing disdainfully, she flirts with the director. | 15 | ·˘/˘········˘/˘ |
| They are in a room. John knows nothing of it. Only, that the | 15 | ·······/˘··/˘·· |
| flesh and blood of Dorris are its walls. Singing walls. Lights, | 13 | ····/˘···/˘·· |
| soft, as if they shine through clear pink fingers. Soft lights, | 12 | ········/˘·· |
| and warm. | 2 | ·· |
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.