Summary

The poem begins with the speaker hearing the “halting footsteps of a lass” in the Black neighborhood of Harlem (1). Night has just fallen and the speaker sees “shapes of girls” moving through the social scene of nighttime Harlem to “bend and barter at desire’s call” (3-4). The speaker seems almost enthralled when he exclaims: “Ah, little dark girls who in slippered feet go prowling through the night from street to street!” (5-6).

The tone shifts in the second stanza, however. “The little gray feet know no rest” as they rush through the streets of Harlem all through the night looking for work. We learn that it has been snowing throughout the night as well, contributing to the precarity and hostility of the environment. The women are no longer “prowling” (6) through the streets but “trudging” (12).

The perspective then switches slightly, widening out from Harlem...