Harlem Shadows

I hear the halting footsteps of a lass

    In Negro Harlem when the night lets fall

  Its veil. I see the shapes of girls who pass

    To bend and barter at desire's call.

  Ah, little dark girls who in slippered feet

  Go prowling through the night from street to street!

  Through the long night until the silver break

    Of day the little gray feet know no rest;

  Through the lone night until the last snow-flake

   Has dropped from heaven upon the earth's white breast,

 The dusky, half-clad girls of tired feet

 Are trudging, thinly shod, from street to street.

 Ah, stern harsh world, that in the wretched way

   Of poverty, dishonor and disgrace,

 Has pushed the timid little feet of clay,

   The sacred brown feet of my fallen race!

 Ah, heart of me, the weary, weary feet

 In Harlem wandering from street to street.

Composition date is unknown - the above date represents the first publication date.The lyrical form of this poem is ababcc.