“The artist speaks to our capacity for delight and wonder, to the sense of mystery surrounding our lives, to our sense of pity and beauty, and pain.” –Joseph Conrad
In the quote from Joseph Conrad, he is saying that art's purpose is to convey intense emotions like delight, wonder, mystery, pity, beauty, and pain. The poem The Harlem Dancer by Claude McKay shows art’s way of doing this. The imagery of describing the dancer as a “proudly-swaying palm / Grown lovelier for passing through a storm,” expresses the mysterious nature of the dancer and her attractiveness to all the people watching her. He also uses rich imagery to describe her hair and voice in a way that shows the sexiness of her dance. Finally, outside of the outward attraction and beauty that have been described, the author gives us a glimpse into the soul of the dancer, and we pity her that “her self was not in that strange place.”
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