I hear the halting footsteps of a lass In Negro Harlem when the night lets fall Its veil.
-- Speaker (Lines 1 – 3)

Importance: The first line of the poem takes the reader into Harlem in multiple registers. Hearing is the initial channel through which the speaker apprehends the social world of Harlem. The fact that the poem begins with "I hear" creates the impression that the speaker, and the reader, is already in the middle of the hustle and bustle, as if we have just turned a corner and heard or seen something unexpected. This first line also introduces the uneven, hurried, and anxious temporality of the poem in which the women spend the night looking for work. This temporality is particularly that of nighttime, when an underside of the city emerges.

I see the shapes of girls who pass / To bend and barter at desire's call.
-- Speaker (Lines 3 – 4)

Importance: In this quote, the theme of desire emerges...