Give Us Barabbas [1] Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCBDEDE FGFGHIHI FJFJKLKL MNMNOPQP ARARAAAA| There was a man a Jew of kingly blood | A |
| But of the people poor and lowly born | B |
| Accused of blasphemy of God He stood | C |
| Before the Roman Pilate while in scorn | B |
| The multitude demanded it was fit | D |
| That one should suffer for the people while | E |
| Another be released absolved acquit | D |
| To live his life out virtuous or vile | E |
| - | |
| Whom will ye have Barabbas or this Jew | F |
| Pilate made answer to the mob The choice | G |
| Is yours I wash my hands of this and you | F |
| Do as you will With one vast ribald voice | G |
| The populace arose and shrieking cried | H |
| Give us Barabbas we condone his deeds | I |
| And He of Nazareth was crucified | H |
| Misjudged condemned dishonoured for their needs | I |
| - | |
| And down these nineteen centuries anew | F |
| Comes the hoarse throated brutalized refrain | J |
| Give us Barabbas crucify the Jew | F |
| Once more a man must bear a nation's stain | J |
| And that in France the chivalrous whose lore | K |
| Made her the flower of knightly age gone by | L |
| Now she lies hideous with a leprous sore | K |
| No skill can cure no pardon purify | L |
| - | |
| And an indignant world transfixed with hate | M |
| Of such disease cries as in Herod's time | N |
| Pointing its finger at her festering state | M |
| Room for the leper and her leprous crime | N |
| And France writhing from years of torment cries | O |
| Out in her anguish Let this Jew endure | P |
| Damned and disgraced vicarious sacrifice | Q |
| The honour of my army is secure | P |
| - | |
| And vampire like that army sucks the blood | A |
| From out a martyr's veins and strips his crown | R |
| Of honour from him and his herohood | A |
| Flings in the dust and cuts his manhood down | R |
| Hide from your God O ye that did this act | A |
| With lesser crimes the halls of Hell are paved | A |
| Your army's honour may be still intact | A |
| Unstained unsoiled unspotted but unsaved | A |
Emily Pauline Johnson
(1)
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