Sarah Bevan |
Poems that highlight an intimate, microscopic experience of a universal system are usually the most powerful, because they give the reader a humanized perspective of the experience. Claude McKay’s “The Harlem Dancer” gives readers a glimpse into the harsh reality of being black during the Harlem Renaissance, as McKay focuses on the tensions between a black woman and white consumers in a Harlem nightclub. We are introduced to the vivid scene with an image of young white men, who are sitting with young black prostitutes, as they all enjoy the performance of a black dancer. The audience is applauding, laughing, and drunk; though they are not who everyone has devoted their attention to. Everyone’s eyes are on the dancing woman, who is described with very soft images, sounds, and sensations:
“Her voice was the sound of blended flutes She sang and danced on gracefully and calm, The light gauze hanging loose about her form; To me she seemed a proudly-swaying palm” The speaker goes on to admire the dancer’s beauty, and not very romantically – but this isn’t a romantic poem. McKay’s choice to use the sonnet form seems offbeat at first, because its rhythm evokes a sadness that conflicts with his imagery. He does this intentionally, to show the reader how the restrictive nature of the sonnet form is comparable to that of the highly restrictive black experience in the mid-twentieth century. The structure of the poem makes sense because of the rhyming couplet, as McKay reveals the violence hidden behind the romanticized nightclub atmosphere: “But looking at her falsely-smiling face,’ I knew her self was not in that strange place.” McKay wants to point out the socioeconomic tensions at play here; he mentions the patrons “tossing coins in praise,” which refers to the reality that the black dancer is working only for a few coins that come from the pockets of people who were born with more financial and social privilege due to their gender and skin color. Although the young white men are surrounded by black women, they still hold a certain unwavering power over everyone in the room. In this context, there is a clearly violent relationship between the white men and the black women whose beauty and labor they “devour.” The emotion of just this small scene represents a much larger system of oppression that both black men and women faced in the twentieth century.
3 Comments
Jaimey Bly
9/20/2019 07:32:15 pm
I think you hit this right on the head. I totally agree with your interpretation. You explained it well and provided really great insight. The only thing I wish you could have talked about a little more was the dancer having a smile on her face. I think that has an underline message to it in the poem. But this was great.
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9/22/2019 06:17:30 am
This is a great post that really illustrates how sinister this poem truly is. I agree with Jaimey about discussing the smile on her face a little more. To me, that just adds to how sinister and violent this scene, that she is forced to smile for these men. I also love your first line, it's beautifully written and very true.
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Jeremy C
9/22/2019 09:03:06 am
This post was well written. I liked how you set the scene with your first line.That intro line really helped grasp my attention and the overall post kept me interested. This post really helped paint a bigger picture of the true meaning behind the poem, which was to show how violent the relationship between black women and white men.
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