Drum Dream Girl

One motif in Drum Dream Girl is dance. Dance has an intimate relationship with music. For instance, the rumba is a dance from Cuba that has gained international popularity in the ballroom scene. Rumba dance in the “outdoor cafés” (Line 22) is created in conversation with the music, rather than simply a set of steps learned in a studio (like an Arthur Murray studio). The girl feels a dance rhythm while simply walking around her “city of drumbeats” (Line 13). The “dancing tap / of her own footsteps” (Lines 33-34) is inspiration for the music she hears in various daily places that translates to music in her dreams.

She is also inspired by the “towering / dancers” (Lines 40-41) who perform at carnivals. The stilt-dancers are vertically illustrated, and the text is rotated so it matches the illustration. The movement of the book here to see the dancers and text—as well as the high-flying dancers themselves—can be compared to the movement of her hands while drumming, her fingers and palms “seemed to fly” (Line 60) on drums. At the end of the poem, the public approval of the girl’s playing is linked with dance. Her audience “sang / and danced / and decided / that girls should always / be allowed to play / drums” (Lines 97-102). Drumming talent and skill is determined by its ability to inspire dancing.