Eliza Harris Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABB CCDD EEFF GGHH IIJJ EEFF AAKK LLBB MMNN DDOO PPOO QQDD| Like a fawn from the arrow startled and wild | A |
| A woman swept by us bearing a child | A |
| In her eye was the night of a settled despair | B |
| And her brow was o'ershaded with anguish and care | B |
| - | |
| She was nearing the river in reaching the brink | C |
| She heeded no danger she paused not to think | C |
| For she is a mother her child is a slave | D |
| And she'll give him his freedom or find him a grave | D |
| - | |
| 'Twas a vision to haunt us that innocent face | E |
| So pale in its aspect so fair in its grace | E |
| As the tramp of the horse and the bay of the hound | F |
| With the fetters that gall were trailing the ground | F |
| - | |
| She was nerved by despair and strengthen'd by woe | G |
| As she leap'd o'er the chasms that yawn'd from below | G |
| Death howl'd in the tempest and rav'd in the blast | H |
| But she heard not the sound till the danger was past | H |
| - | |
| Oh how shall I speak of my proud country's shame | I |
| Of the stains on her glory how give them their name | I |
| How say that her banner in mockery waves | J |
| Her star spangled banner o'er millions of slaves | J |
| - | |
| How say that the lawless may torture and chase | E |
| A woman whose crime is the hue of her face | E |
| How the depths of forest may echo around | F |
| With the shrieks of despair and the bay of the hound | F |
| - | |
| With her step on the ice and her arm on her child | A |
| The danger was fearful the pathway was wild | A |
| But aided by Heaven she gained a free shore | K |
| Where the friends of humanity open'd their door | K |
| - | |
| So fragile and lovely so fearfully pale | L |
| Like a lily that bends to the breath of the gale | L |
| Save the heave of her breast and the sway of her hair | B |
| You'd have thought her a statue of fear and despair | B |
| - | |
| In agony close to her bosom she press'd | M |
| The life of her heart the child of her breast | M |
| Oh love from its tenderness gathering might | N |
| Had strengthen'd her soul for the dangers of flight | N |
| - | |
| But she's free yes free from the land where the slave | D |
| From the hand of oppression must rest in the grave | D |
| Where bondage and torture where scourges and chains | O |
| Have plac'd on our banner indelible stains | O |
| - | |
| The bloodhounds have miss'd the scent of her way | P |
| The hunter is rifled and foil'd of his prey | P |
| Fierce jargon and cursing with clanking of chains | O |
| Make sounds of strange discord on Liberty's plains | O |
| - | |
| With the rapture of love and fullness of bliss | Q |
| She plac'd on his brow a mother's fond kiss | Q |
| Oh poverty danger and death she can brave | D |
| For the child of her love is no longer a slave | D |
Frances Ellen Watkins Harper
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
Write your comment about Eliza Harris poem by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper
Best Poems of Frances Ellen Watkins Harper