The Harlem Dancer Essay

“The Harlem Dancer” by Claude McKay is a Shakespearean sonnet in its poetic form, discernable from the several formal elements it possesses regarding rhythm, rhyme, and format. It has fourteen lines, which are divided into three quatrains that are followed by one couplet. The quatrains follow an alternate rhyme scheme; the word that the first line ends with, “prostitutes”, rhymes with the word that ends the third line, “flutes” (McKay 1, 3). This rhyme remains consistent for the second line and fourth line: “sway” and “day”, respectively (McKay 2, 4). The alternate rhyme scheme pattern mapped in the first quatrain is repeated in the subsequent quatrains, with “calm” and “palm”, “form” and “storm”, “curls” and “girls”, and “praise” and “gaze”

McKay came to know the Shakespearean sonnet through the colonial education he was forced to endure. McKay understands the Shakespearean sonnet as a form of poetry that is both derived from the English-speaking colonial power and forced upon the subjects of that colonial power. By employing the Shakespearean sonnet, McKay suggests that the structures of colonial power that mandated that he learn what a Shakespearean sonnet is created the circumstance in which the Harlem dancer finds herself. The description of her as “not in that strange place” implies that she is disassociating or otherwise dislikes her existence within the club’s atmosphere. However, due to colonial forces that have enforced conditions in which she is oppressed, she is forced to dance in Harlem for “coins in praise”. Based on the context of the time of McKay’s writing and the content of the poem, the dancer is assumed to be a young Black woman who took the job as a dancer to survive the colonial conditions of racism, classism, and sexism that create circumstances of

The plosive “p” in the comparison of the dancer to a “proudly-swaying palm / Grown lovelier for passing” draws attention to the palm as the object of comparison, as opposed to the dancer herself (McKay 7-8). This works to amplify the imagery of the palm tree, which is not native to Harlem. McKay juxtaposes the Harlem dancer with a plant of his non-American homeland as a symbol of power prevailing in difficult circumstances. This associates the dancer with the non-American environment—emphasizing her racial identity as a Black woman and Blackness as not native to America. As the palm “grows lovelier” for resisting the storm, McKay recognizes that the dancer’s blackness and related non-nativeness to America through her blackness is, in fact, a source that can be drawn on for power to resist American racism. This attention to black resistance remains apparent through the “bl” consonant blend; through a repeated “bl” sound that occurs every other word, McKay draws attention to black musicality and artistry. The pattern of repetition—in addition to the repetition itself—creates a rhythm and, subsequently, a sense of melody that is both directly and comparatively associated with black artistry; the dancer’s voice is compared to “the sound of blended flutes” that is