The Spanish Needle
Claude McKay 1889 (Clarendon Parish) – 1948 (Chicago)
Lovely dainty Spanish needle
With your yellow flower and white,
Dew bedecked and softly sleeping,
Do you think of me to-night?
Shadowed by the spreading mango,
Nodding o'er the rippling stream,
Tell me, dear plant of my childhood,
Do you of the exile dream?
Do you see me by the brook's side
Catching crayfish 'neath the stone,
As you did the day you whispered:
Leave the harmless dears alone?
Do you see me in the meadow
Coming from the woodland spring
With a bamboo on my shoulder
And a pail slung from a string?
Do you see me all expectant
Lying in an orange grove,
While the swee-swees sing above me,
Waiting for my elf-eyed love?
Lovely dainty Spanish needle,
Source to me of sweet delight,
In your far-off sunny southland
Do you dream of me to-night?
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 17, 2023
- 42 sec read
- 270 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | Abcb dexe xfxf dcxc xxxx Abxb |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 764 |
Words | 139 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
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"The Spanish Needle" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 8 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/6898/the-spanish-needle>.
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