Analysis of The Voices
John Greenleaf Whittier 1807 (Haverhill) – 1892 (Hampton Falls)
'WHY urge the long, unequal fight,
Since Truth has fallen in the street,
Or lift anew the trampled light,
Quenched by the heedless million's feet?
'Give o'er the thankless task; forsake
The fools who know not ill from good:
Eat, drink, enjoy thy own, and take
Thine ease among the multitude.
'Live out thyself; with others share
Thy proper life no more; assume
The unconcern of sun and air,
For life or death, or blight or bloom.
'The mountain pine looks calmly on
The fires that scourge the plains below,
Nor heeds the eagle in the sun
The small birds piping in the snow!
'The world is God's, not thine; let Him
Work out a change, if change must be:
The hand that planted best can trim
And nurse the old unfruitful tree.'
So spake the Tempter, when the light
Of sun and stars had left the sky;
I listened, through the cloud and night,
And heard, methought, a voice reply:
'Thy task may well seem over-hard,
Who scatterest in a thankless soil
Thy life as seed, with no reward
Save that which Duty gives to Toil.
'Not wholly is thy heart resigned
To Heaven's benign and just decree,
Which, linking thee with all thy kind,
Transmits their joys and griefs to thee.
'Break off that sacred chain, and turn
Back on thyself thy love and care;
Be thou thine own mean idol, burn
Faith, Hope, and Trust, thy children, there.
'Released from that fraternal law
Which shares the common bale and bliss,
No sadder lot could Folly draw,
Or Sin provoke from Fate, than this.
'The meal unshared is food unblest:
Thou hoard'st in vain what love should spend;
Self-ease is pain; thy only rest
Is labor for a worthy end;
'A toil that gains with what it yields,
And scatters to its own increase,
And hears, while sowing outward fields,
The harvest-song of inward peace.
'Free-lipped the liberal streamlets run,
Free shines for all the healthful ray;.
The still pool stagnates in the sun,
The lurid earth-fire haunts decay!
'What is it that the crowd requite
Thy love with hate, thy truth with lies?
And but to faith, and not to sight,
The walls of Freedom's temple rise?
'Yet do thy work; it shall succeed
In thine or in another's day;
And, if denied the victor's meed,
Thou shalt not lack the toiler's pay.
'Faith shares the future's promise; Love's
Self-offering is a triumph won;
And each good thought or action moves
The dark world nearer to the sun.
'Then faint not, falter not, nor plead
Thy weakness; truth itself is strong;
The lion's strength, the eagle's speed,
Are not alone vouchsafed to wrong.
'Thy nature, which, through fire and flood,
To place or gain finds out its way,
Hath power to seek the highest good,
And duty's holiest call obey!
'Strivest thou in darkness? — Foes without
In league with traitor thoughts within;
Thy night-watch kept with trembling Doubt
And pale Remorse the ghost of Sin?
'Hast thou not, on some week of storm,
Seen the sweet Sabbath breaking fair,
And cloud and shadow, sunlit, form
The curtains of its tent of prayer?
'So, haply, when thy task shall end,
The wrong shall lose itself in right,
And all thy week-day darkness blend
With the long Sabbath of the light!'
Scheme | ABABCDCEFGFGHIJIKLKLAMAMNOPOQLQLRFRFSTSTAUVUWXWXJYJYAZAZ1 YAY2 J3 J1 4 1 4 5 YDY6 7 6 7 8 F8 FUAUA |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11010101 11110001 11010101 110111 110010101 01111111 11011101 1101010 1111101 11011101 0011101 11111111 01011101 010110101 11010001 01110001 01111111 11011111 01110111 010111 1101101 11011101 11010101 0110101 11111101 1100101 11111101 11110111 11011101 110010101 11011111 01110111 11110101 1111101 11111101 11011101 01110101 11010101 11011101 11011111 011111 111011111 11111101 11010101 01111111 0111101 01110101 01011101 11010011 11110101 0111001 010110101 1111011 11111111 01110111 01110101 11111101 01100101 01010101 1111011 11010101 110010101 01111101 01110101 11110111 11010111 01010101 1101111 110111001 11111111 110110101 01100101 11010101 01110101 111111001 01010111 11111111 10110101 010111 01011111 1111111 01110101 01111101 10110101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 3,014 |
Words | 557 |
Sentences | 23 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 84 |
Lines Amount | 84 |
Letters per line (avg) | 28 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 2,387 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 553 |
Font size:
Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 2:50 min read
- 50 Views
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem analysis to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"The Voices" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 30 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/23217/the-voices>.
Discuss this John Greenleaf Whittier poem analysis with the community:
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In