{
 "id": "james-weldon-johnson/down-by-the-carib-sea",
 "title": "Down by the Carib Sea",
 "poet": "James Weldon Johnson",
 "poet_slug": "james-weldon-johnson",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Fifty Years & Other Poems",
 "book_slug": "fifty-years-and-other-poems",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 20,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1917,
  "venue": "Fifty Years & Other Poems (1917)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/fiftyyearsother00johnrich",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/17884"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/james-weldon-johnson_poetry",
  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://www.google.com/books/edition/How_the_National_Association_for_the_Adv/AAs-AQAAMAAJ",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/17884",
   "https://archive.org/details/fiftyyearsother00johnrich",
   "https://docsouth.unc.edu/southlit/johnson/johnson.html",
   "https://archive.org/details/godstrombonessev00johnso"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-12"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 137,
  "n_stanzas": 22,
  "n_parts": 6,
  "longest_line_chars": 59,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [
  {
   "ordinal": "I",
   "title": "Sunrise in the Tropics",
   "stanza_range": [
    0,
    3
   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "II",
   "title": "Los Cigarillos",
   "stanza_range": [
    3,
    6
   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "III",
   "title": "Teestay",
   "stanza_range": [
    6,
    11
   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "IV",
   "title": "The Lottery Girl",
   "stanza_range": [
    11,
    15
   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "V",
   "title": "The Dancing Girl",
   "stanza_range": [
    15,
    20
   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "VI",
   "title": "Sunset in the Tropics",
   "stanza_range": [
    20,
    22
   ]
  }
 ],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Sol, Sol, mighty lord of the tropic zone,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Here I wait with the trembling stars",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To see thee once more take thy throne.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "There the patient palm tree watching",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Waits to say, “Good morn” to thee,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And a throb of expectation",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Pulses through the earth and me.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Now, o’er nature falls a hush,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Look! the East is all a-blush;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And a growing crimson crest",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Dims the late stars in the west;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Now, a flood of golden light",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sweeps across the silver night,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Swift the pale moon fades away",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Before the light-girt King of Day,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "See! the miracle is done!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Once more behold! The Sun!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "This is the land of the dark-eyed gente,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of the dolce far niente,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where we dream away",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Both the night and day,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "At night-time in sleep our dreams we invoke,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Our dreams come by day through the redolent smoke,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As it lazily curls,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And slowly unfurls",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From our lips,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the tips",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of our fragrant cigarillos.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For life in the tropics is only a joke,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So we pass it in dreams, and we pass it in smoke,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Smoke⁠—smoke⁠—smoke.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Tropical constitutions",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Call for occasional revolutions;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But after that’s through,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Why there’s nothing to do",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But smoke⁠—smoke;",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "For life in the tropics is only a joke,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So we pass it in dreams, and we pass it in smoke,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Smoke⁠—smoke⁠—smoke.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Of tropic sensations, the worst",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Is, sin duda, the tropical thirst.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "When it starts in your throat and constantly grows,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Till you feel that it reaches down to your toes,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When your mouth tastes like fur",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And your tongue turns to dust,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "There’s but one thing to do,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And do it you must,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Drink teestay.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Teestay, a drink with a history,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A delicious, delectable mystery,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Cinco centavos el vaso, señor,”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "If you take one, you will surely want more.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Teestay, teestay,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The national drink on a feast day;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "How it coolingly tickles,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As downward it trickles,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Teestay, teestay.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And you wish, as you take it down at a quaff,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That your neck was constructed à la giraffe.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Teestay, teestay.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Lottery, lottery,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Take a chance at the lottery?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Take a ticket,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or, better, take two;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who knows what the future",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "May hold for you?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lottery, lottery,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Take a chance at the lottery?”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Oh, limpid-eyed girl,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I would take every chance,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "If only the prize",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Were a love-flashing glance",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From your fathomless eyes.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Lottery, lottery,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Try your luck at the lottery?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Consider the size",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of the capital prize,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And take tickets",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For the lottery.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Tickets, señor? Tickets, señor?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Take a chance at the lottery?”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Oh, crimson-lipped girl,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With the magical smile,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I would count that the gamble",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Were well worth the while,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Not a chance would I miss,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "If only the prize",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Were a honey-bee kiss",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Gathered in sips",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From those full-ripened lips,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And a love-flashing glance",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From your eyes.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Do you know what it is to dance?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Perhaps, you do know, in a fashion;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But by dancing I mean,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Not what’s generally seen,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But dancing of fire and passion,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of fire and delirious passion.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "With a dusky-haired señorita,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Her dark, misty eyes near your own,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And her scarlet-red mouth,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like a rose of the south,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The reddest that ever was grown,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So close that you catch",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Her quick-panting breath",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As across your own face it is blown,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With a sigh, and a moan.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Ah! that is dancing,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As here by the Carib it’s known.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Now, whirling and twirling",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like furies we go;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Now, soft and caressing",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And sinuously slow;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With an undulating motion,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like waves on a breeze-kissed ocean:⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the scarlet-red mouth",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Is nearer your own,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the dark, misty eyes",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Still softer have grown.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Ah! that is dancing, that is loving,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As here by the Carib they’re known.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "A silver flash from the sinking sun,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then a shot of crimson across the sky",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That, bursting, lets a thousand colors fly",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And riot among the clouds; they run,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Deepening in purple, flaming in gold,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Changing, and opening fold after fold,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then fading through all of the tints of the rose into gray,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Till, taking quick fright at the coming night,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They rush out down the west,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In hurried quest",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of the fleeing day.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Now above where the tardiest color flares a moment yet,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "One point of light, now two, now three are set",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To form the starry stairs⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And, in her fire-fly crown,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Queen Night, on velvet slippered feet, comes softly down.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}