The Tropics in New York

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1922

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Form and Meter

The poem is written in iambic pentameter. An iamb is a poetic foot in which an unstressed syllable is followed by a stressed syllable. A pentameter consists of five poetic feet. Iambic pentameter is the most common meter in English poetry. The best example in this poem is the final line, Line 12: “I turned aside and bowed my head and wept.” For variety, however, the poet modifies the basic iambic rhythm. Line 2, for example, begins with two stressed syllables (“Cocoa”). This type of foot is known as a spondee. Another spondee occurs at the end of Line 7 (“blue skies”); both syllables are stressed. Line 4 begins with an inversion of the first foot (“Fit for”); it is not iambic but trochaic. A trochee is a poetic foot in which the first syllable is stressed and the second syllable is unstressed. Stanza 2 also begins with a trochaic foot (“Set in,” Line 5).

The poem is in the form of rhyming quatrains. This means that each stanza consists of four lines that rhyme in a consistent manner at the end of the line. Line 1 rhymes with Line 3, and Line 2 rhymes with Line 4. This can be represented as an a b a b rhyme scheme. All the rhymes consist of a single, stressed syllable and are known as masculine rhymes. The rhymed words match exactly and are therefore known as perfect rhymes. The only exception is in Lines 5 and 7, in which the last syllable of “memories” is rhymed with “skies.” Because the sounds are not identical, this is known as imperfect rhyme (or slant rhyme).

Alliteration

Alliteration refers to the repetition of the initial consonants of nearby words. Alliteration is a prominent device in the poem. In Line 1, the “r” and “g” sounds are prominent, in “ripe and green, and ginger-root.” The “g” sound carries over into the following line with the word “alligator” and into Line 3 with “tangerines,” “mangoes,” and “grape.” However, only one of these (“grape”) is alliterative; in the other examples, the “g” occurs in the middle of the word, in which case it is referred to as consonance. In Line 2, alliteration occurs in the words “pods” and “pears.” In Line 4, the words “Fit” and “fairs” alliterate, as do “prize” and “parish.” In Stanza 2, alliteration occurs in “laden by low-singing” (Line 6) and, even more prominent, in “dewy dawns” (Line 7).

Assonance

Assonance is the repetition of neighboring vowel sounds. “And tangerines and mangoes” (Line 3) features assonance in the fourfold repetition of the same “a” sound; in the following line, Line 4, “highest prize” is an example of assonance of the repeated “i” sound in successive words. Another example is in “head and wept” (Line 12), which repeats the “e” sound.

Simile and Metaphor

The poet introduces a spiritual element with “mystical blue skies” (Line 7); this implied metaphor gives the skies a godlike power to bless the scene below. This becomes apparent in the following line, in which the hills are described in a simile as “nun-like.” (In a simile, which can usually be recognized by the introductory words “like” or “as,” one thing is compared to a different thing in a way that brings out a similarity between them.) The hills are in a posture of humility, praying like nuns and expressing gratitude for a blessing (“benediction,” Line 8) passed to them from above by the skies. (A direct metaphor would state that the sky is a god; the implied metaphor here suggests in the context of the simile a godlike action, from which the reader might conclude that the sky is being compared or identified with a god.)