The Harlem Dancer

"The Harlem Dancer" is a very different yet beautiful and unique poem.  The poem begins with setting a scene within the streets of Harlem.  The street is filled with laughing youth and a dancer who is giving quite the performance yet something about the dancer is different.  The author describes her as graceful and calm.  Both the boys and girls watched her every move as she danced and sang a beautiful melody.  They could not seem to get enough and yet the young dancer seemed distant. "but looking at her falsely-smiling face/I knew her self was not in that strange place." (L 13-14)  Many times young kids and adults are seen only for where they come from and it is assumed that they will be nothing greater and I feel that this is exactly what is being said in this poem.  The young girl is seen only as this amazing dancer yet only one is able to see that this dancer is not happy with being seen as nothing more than a performer or as an object for other youth to watch as some sort of interesting object.  Her false smile gives away that there is so much more to her than what is present on that street and that unfortunately many will never get to see.