Analysis of Hymn For The Celebration Of Emancipation At Newburyport
John Greenleaf Whittier 1807 (Haverhill) – 1892 (Hampton Falls)
NOT unto us who did but seek
The word that burned within to speak,
Not unto us this day belong
The triumph and exultant song.
Upon us fell in early youth
The burden of unwelcome truth,
And left us, weak and frail and few,
The censor's painful work to do.
Thenceforth our life a fight became,
The air we breathed was hot with blame;
For not with gauged and softened tone
We made the bondman's cause our own.
We bore, as Freedom's hope forlorn,
The private hate, the public scorn;
Yet held through all the paths we trod
Our faith in man and trust in God.
We prayed and hoped; but still, with awe,
The coming of the sword we saw;
We heard the nearing steps of doom,
We saw the shade of things to come.
In grief which they alone can feel
Who from a mother's wrong appeal,
With blended lines of fear and hope
We cast our country's horoscope.
For still within her house of life
We marked the lurid sign of strife,
And, poisoning and imbittering all,
We saw the star of Wormwood fall.
Deep as our love for her became
Our hate of all that wrought her shame,
And if, thereby, with tongue and pen
We erred, — we were but mortal men.
We hoped for peace; our eyes survey
The blood-red dawn of Freedom's day:
We prayed for love to loose the chain;
'T is shorn by battle's axe in twain!
Nor skill nor strength nor zeal of ours
Has mined and heaved the hostile towers;
Not by our hands is turned the key
That sets the sighing captives free.
A redder sea than Egypt's wave
Is piled and parted for the slave;
A darker cloud moves on in light;
A fiercer fire is guide by night!
The praise, O Lord! is Thine alone,
In Thy own way Thy work is done!
Our poor gifts at Thy feet we cast,
To whom be glory, first and last!
Scheme | AABBCCDDEEFFGGHHIJKLMMNNOOPPEEQQRRSSTTUUVVWWFXYY |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11011111 01110111 11011101 01000101 01110101 01010101 01110101 0110111 11010101 01111111 11110101 11011101 11110101 01010101 11110111 101010101 11011111 01010111 11010111 11011111 01110111 11010101 11011101 11101010 11010111 11010111 0100011 1101111 111011001 101111101 01111101 11101101 111110101 01111101 11111101 111110101 111111110 110101010 111011101 11010101 01011101 11010101 01011101 010101111 01111101 01111111 101111111 11110101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,661 |
Words | 334 |
Sentences | 15 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 48 |
Lines Amount | 48 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 1,309 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 332 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:42 min read
- 136 Views
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"Hymn For The Celebration Of Emancipation At Newburyport" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 8 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/22919/hymn-for-the-celebration-of-emancipation-at-newburyport>.
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