The Congo

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1914

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Form and Meter

Rhymed couplets make up most of “The Congo,” with lines that typically scan as loose tetrameter. Single-syllable perfect rhymes dominate the poem, though several passages of onomatopoeia abandon the structure briefly. Stage directions interrupt the metrical and rhyme structure; these directions do not appear in Lindsay’s performance of the poem. A study of the printed poem, however, must consider these directions as lines. Without the assistance of Lindsay’s dramatic interpretation, the reader must stand in as the poet, adding the auditory and physical dimensions outside the text. Lindsay brackets and indents the stage directions, as if they constitute a directorial voice that supports the text concurrently, rather than stopping it. Many of the directions require specific action; Section II begins “[Rather shrill and high.]” Some directions, like Lines 1 and 2 of Section III, demand an imaginative interpretation: “[Heavy bass. With a literal imitation/of camp-meeting racket, and trance.]” The reader must imagine the following rhymed tetrameter couplet delivered by a speaker playing the role of a camp-meeting participant in an ecstatic state.

Onomatopoeia

Vachel Lindsay’s “The Congo” both uses established nonsense words meant to evoke tribal languages (Mumbo Jumbo) and invents new words and phrases to imitate, if not mock, the cadence of African languages. Using nonsense words to express an imitation of a language unknown to the speaker creates an assumption of superior culture. The speaker cannot be bothered to learn words from the language; his use of percussive nonsense implies that the language is too barbaric to be understood by sophisticated speakers. However, the performed version of “The Congo” hinges on the onomatopoeia for its unifying principle. The long o sounds—a sound Lindsay would have known Edgar Allan Poe identified as the most mournful in English—add dimension to the listener’s experience, a kind of filter for the entire poem. “The Congo” works best as an overall experience, less narrative and more dream-like, focused on an overall effect rather than a linear story.

Alliteration

Lindsay intended “The Congo” to be performed aloud; the poem’s alliteration adds dimension to its percussive rhyme and onomatopoeia. The cross alliteration and parallel patterns within each line resemble Anglo-Saxon versification, a detail that can be hard to notice when read aloud, but one that adds to the experience of a cohesive, rhythmic text. Line 2 of Section II, for instance, weaves a cross alliterative pattern of Ws and Cs with an internal oo assonance: “Wild crap-shooters with a whoop and a call.” The rich description of the dancers in Section II features dense alliteration: “long-tailed coats with a gold-leaf crust” (Section II, Line 26). Line 39 of the last section has a tight envelope alliterative pattern, fitting the build up here to the poem’s close: “There, where the wild ghost-gods had wailed.” With all of the ornament and drama elsewhere in the poem, the effect of its consistent interline alliterative patterns provides another, more subtle unifying factor.