Memory of Her

Poems, La Paloma in London and A Memory of June by Claude McKay, both tell a story of a fleeting romance. La Paloma in London, is a typical Shakespearean sonnet. The first quatrain follows the abab rhyme scheme with the words, light, fun, night, and done. The remaining two quatrains also follow the Shakespearan sonnets, rhyme schemes. The final two lines are a perfect couplet. The last word in each line rhymes: Glory, and Diory. The volta occurs earlier than is expected of a Shakespearean sonnet. Rather than occurring right before the rhyming couplet, it occurs on line 9, with the word Harlem. Up until this point, the speaker is out with his friends in Soho, having a good time. But upon hearing La Paloma on a guitar, the speaker is transported to an encounter he had with a Cuban woman. He reminisces dancing with the woman and her “coffee colored eyes keen glancing aslant at [his]” (McKay 78). In the final line, he proclaims he loved her. One of the five dominant themes of Shakespearean sonnets is a man expressing his love for a woman. It makes sense then, why McKay chose a Shakespearean sonnet, to tell the story of a man who cannot help but be reminded of an encounter he had with a woman, long past. It reveals the depth of his feelings for her. A Memory of June tells a similar story. Like in the previous poem, the speaker is transported to an encounter he had with a woman every time it is June. Unlike the first poem, this speaker talks of passion and sensuality. Just from their arms locked, he could feel their “warm flesh pulsing with love’s pain” (McKay 79). This speaks to their desire to be together intimately. So much so, it is painful. When intimate, the speaker says the woman’s “brown burning body was a lute, whereon my passion played his fevered song” (McKay 79). Here, the speaker tells of the pleasure he gave her. But, like the previous poem, the speaker and the woman go their separate ways and he is left with only the memory of her. This poem does not have many components of a Shakespearean sonnet. It is not 14 lines, but 23. But the first quatrain follows the abab rhyming scheme. Every quatrain, apart from the second, follows the same rhyming scheme as the first. This draws attention to the second quatrain, which I believe to be where the volta is. It is the moment when the speaker is transported to his summer fling. The volta served the same purpose for the previous poem. While A Memory of June does not follow the Shakespearean sonnet to a T, I believe it was done to express the difference of his love affair from the man in La Paloma in London. They both loved the women, no doubt, but the man from A Memory of June, had a romance filled with extreme passion, and deep intimacy. The other man’s romance seemed simpler, hence the Shakespearean sonnet.

Bella Cortez