{
 "id": "langston-hughes/song-for-a-banjo-dance",
 "title": "Song for a Banjo Dance",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Langston Hughes",
 "poet_slug": "langston-hughes",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "The Weary Blues",
 "book_slug": "the-weary-blues",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 12,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1922,
  "venue": "The Crisis (October 1922)",
  "note": "Located in the bound Crisis volume 23–24 on disk (Archive.org crisis2324dubo): printed on page 267 of the issue whose masthead reads Vol. 24 No. 6, October 1922, Whole No. 144, listed on its contents page as “Song for a Banjo Dance. A Poem. Langston Hughes 267”. The whole poem is there, with two readings that differ from the collected text: the Crisis has “Get on over, darling,” for “Walk on over, darling,” and “Now! Step out” for “Now! Come out”. Collected in The Weary Blues (1926), which remains the text this record carries.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/crisis2324dubo"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
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  "repo": "standardebooks/langston-hughes_poetry",
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   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/003138045",
   "https://archive.org/details/newnegrointerpre00unse",
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  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-14"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 27,
  "n_stanzas": 3,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 38,
  "max_indent": 2
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Shake your brown feet, honey,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shake your brown feet, chile,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shake your brown feet, honey,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shake ’em swift and wil’⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Get way back, honey,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Do that low-down step.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Walk on over, darling,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Now! Come out",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "With your left.",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Shake your brown feet, honey,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shake ’em, honey chile.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Sun’s going down this evening⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Might never rise no mo’.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The sun’s going down this very night⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Might never rise no mo’⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So dance with swift feet, honey,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "(The banjo’s sobbing low)",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Dance with swift feet, honey⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Might never dance no mo’.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Shake your brown feet, Liza,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shake ’em, Liza, chile,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shake your brown feet, Liza,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "(The music’s soft and wil’)",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Shake your brown feet, Liza,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "(The banjo’s sobbing low)",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The sun’s going down this very night⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Might never rise no mo’.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}