Bury Me In A Free Land Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABB CCDD EEFF GGHH IIJJ KKLL MMCC NNBB| Make me a grave where'er you will | A |
| In a lowly plain or a lofty hill | A |
| Make it among earth's humblest graves | B |
| But not in a land where men are slaves | B |
| - | |
| I could not rest if around my grave | C |
| I heard the steps of a trembling slave | C |
| His shadow above my silent tomb | D |
| Would make it a place of fearful gloom | D |
| - | |
| I could not rest if I heard the tread | E |
| Of a coffle gang to the shambles led | E |
| And the mother's shriek of wild despair | F |
| Rise like a curse on the trembling air | F |
| - | |
| I could not sleep if I saw the lash | G |
| Drinking her blood at each fearful gash | G |
| And I saw her babes torn from her breast | H |
| Like trembling doves from their parent nest | H |
| - | |
| I'd shudder and start if I heard the bay | I |
| Of bloodhounds seizing their human prey | I |
| And I heard the captive plead in vain | J |
| As they bound afresh his galling chain | J |
| - | |
| If I saw young girls from their mother's arms | K |
| Bartered and sold for their youthful charms | K |
| My eye would flash with a mournful flame | L |
| My death paled cheek grow red with shame | L |
| - | |
| I would sleep dear friends where bloated might | M |
| Can rob no man of his dearest right | M |
| My rest shall be calm in any grave | C |
| Where none can call his brother a slave | C |
| - | |
| I ask no monument proud and high | N |
| To arrest the gaze of the passers by | N |
| All that my yearning spirit craves | B |
| Is bury me not in a land of slaves | B |
Frances Ellen Watkins Harper
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