Analysis of ‘The Harlem Dancer’

Analysed by LR

THE HARLEM DANCER

by: Claude McKay (1890-1948)

Poem can be viewed on the internet.

Quatrain One

The words “applauding youths” makes one think of innocence, happiness, gaiety, and fun, not of

children but of young adults. This thought changes when continuing to reading the end of the first line;

‘laughed with young prostitutes’. The idea of innocence diminishes and thoughts of sex, misconduct,

the lower classes and sleazy atmospheres enters one’s mind. ‘Young prostitutes’ is a grim statement

of girls recently making a commitment to a life in the lower sections of society. Being young means

the hope of escaping or leaving that lifestyle. However a little more quality is gained from these young

prostitutes since they are still in possession of their beauty, figures and spirits. These young laughing

prostitutes may not realize that their earnings would dwindle with the course of time. The ‘applauding

youths’ in conjunction with the ‘young prostitutes’ describes the manners of a certain class not

normally seen in brothels, as compared to the regular conduct in ‘strip joints’ such as loud jeering,

whistling and catcalls.

Line two in the poem states that the youths are appreciative of watching someone who has a perfect

figure who can easily be seen because she is dressed scantily or is wearing transparent clothing or is

topless. They applaud her for this, viewing her perfect body as a work of art. The youths not only

applaud but laugh at the movements her topless body makes as she sways.
The description of her voice to the ‘sound of blended flutes’ depicts her voice as one that is pleasing

to hear, melodious and sounds like a mixture of different accents that come from mixed or exotic

ancestry. The term ‘blended flutes’ delivers a different meaning when related to ‘black players’ and

‘picnic day’ from the last line of the first quatrain. ‘Black players’ are not limited to seedy strip joints

and brothels and that is only a small possibly hidden part of their society and culture. A ‘picnic day’

represents fun, family, purity and clean recreational togetherness. ‘Blended flutes’ in relation to these

words shows that this is not the normal sound from a Harlem dancer and puts a question mark on her

placement in her present situation.

The first quatrain introduces the setting of the poem, the main character, a description of her, her

occupation and her audience. It introduces themes of innocence, happiness, carefree attitudes and

ignorance.

Quatrain Two

The words ‘graceful and calm’ contrast with ‘half-clothed body sway’. The normal description of a

dancer who sways and is semi-nude is sensual and seductive. Her portrayal of someone who is

graceful and calm puts her in a different class above the rest of the prostitutes, for this is not the

normal description used for any female working in a nightclub.

Being able to perform ‘gracefully and calm’ while displaying her perfect form through her wearing

‘light gauze’ shows that she is not ashamed of what she does. She is aware of her abilities, talents

and her fine figure. Hence the reason for remaining elegant and composed while wearing, forcibly or

not, loose fitting and transparent apparel during her performance.

The narrator connects her with beautiful, powerful imagery of nature but uses the words, ‘proudly-

swaying palm’ and ‘storm’ to describe her. This shows her as a person who has strong will power and

feels pleasurable satisfaction from her dancing. She is someone who had to endure struggle and

adversity in her life and survived, although she does not outwardly show whether she endured

unscathed or not inwardly, by the placement of the words in the second to last line; ‘falsely-smiling

face’. Her pride and endurance relates to a line of dialogue by the character ‘The Emperor’ in the

1998 animated movie, ‘Mulan’, which is, ‘The flower that blooms in adversity is the more beautiful of

all’. She has not diminished in beauty or glory due to her hardship but has ‘grown lovelier’.

The second quatrain describes her ability, grace, pride and emotional strength. This is a continuation

from the first quatrain which concentrated on her physical attributes. The themes presented in this

quatrain are about struggle, adversity, morality and endurance.

Quatrain Three

The name of the poem says that the dancer is from Harlem, where mass migration of Blacks started

in the area during the year 1904; thirteen years before the writing of this poem. The words, ‘black

players’ is used in the last line of the first quatrain. These are two examples that hint to the ethnicity of

the dancer. The third hint comes from the first line of the third quatrain. The word ‘swarthy’ tells us

that her complexion is dark and hints again that she is a coloured person. Although ‘black shiny curls’

suggests the same, it also relates to Arabic dancers.

The way her curls fall beautifully on her neck adds to her form, voice and sway which connects to her

beauty and grace. ‘Luxuriant’ denotes a life of luxury that only the privileged could have; a class that

moves elegantly and unruffled. The words, ‘Luxuriant fell’ in the third quatrain connects to ‘graceful

and calm’ in the second quatrain.

The ‘tossing of coins in praise’ has two meanings in this poem. Firstly, coins were pitched at her to

show appreciation of her performance and for a continuation and inducement for a more flirtatious

act. This was probably done by the ‘wine-flushed, bold-eyed boys’ as she is a dancer for money.

Secondly, the sequins of her scanty dress made clinking appreciative noises that meshed with her

dance that added to the hypnotic trance she had over the ‘bold-eyed boys’ and ‘girls’. It was probably

the tradition of some Harlem dancers to adorn themselves in a coin wrap.

The patrons of this nightclub who could afford wine over rum or alcohol looked on boldly as if they

have a right to look as they please unabashedly. They could easily pay for her services and probably

were of a higher class than her and look boldly or even down at her. Even the girls looked at her, not

enviously but in admiration. The girls mentioned in this line would not mean any females that entered

the nightclub with the boys. The boys whether high class or not would not bring their girlfriends to

such a seedy place in the presence of youthful and still shapely young prostitutes. The bold-eyed

boys depicted here meant that they are young, energetic males on the verge of becoming men who

are amazed by what they see because they are probably not experienced with such activities. It is

something that they probably had never seen before and they dared not turn away because they do

not want to miss a minute of it. ‘Even the girls devoured her shape’, form and grace with admiration

and probably wished that they had what this dancer has. They ate up every curve of her body, every

curl of her luxuriant hair; they wished that they were part of her.

The patrons of the nightclub in this poem do not feel for her in a loving way. Their feeling of her is of a

more lustful nature. This is not a person that they admire but a person that they lust after, a person

that they desire.

The third quatrain shows themes of hardship, beauty, desire/lust, admiration, class, promiscuity,

ancestry, luxury, wealth, poverty and coming of age.

Rhyming Couplet

The dancer was falsely smiling for her audience to untruthfully display pleasure of what she was

doing and appreciation for their presence, but the truth was that it was an artificial smile to hide her

insincerity, to hide her true feelings and the narrator of the poem detected her false smile and realised

that she felt uncomfortable in a place that she believed she did not belong to and in her mind was

socially beneath her.

The Harlem dancer does not have the luxury of innocence and gaiety to let body and mind loose in

her performance. Although she danced ‘gracefully and calm’, it was a controlled performance devoid

of a happy, carefree attitude like her audience.

Even though she had to struggle and face adversity in her life, she still had to endure working in the

nightclub. There are issues of morality which surfaces for her as she dances ‘half-clothed’ in a

nightclub; in the company of young prostitutes and lustful young boys. It would be thought of that her

morals would be in question here but her ‘falsely smiling face’ and feelings of displacement in the

‘strange place’ say that she could not do any better at the time. She has to use whatever talent or

attribute available to her for her survival, at least for the moment.

The dancer is aware of her ancestry and class by growing up, belonging and dancing in Harlem. She

saw and experienced poverty around her as well as the wealth of the other social classes. She is

keenly aware of the realities of life, which she regularly sees in the nightclub; the promiscuity of the

patrons with the prostitutes and the admiration they all have for her.
Therefore she uses the luxury of her perfect form, artful dancing, growing beauty and inner strength

to capitalize on the human desire and lust of her patrons’ world to endure and survive continuing

adversity in her private world.