Brothers Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDDE FAGDGDDH I J KDLBMNOPQR SDTUVWXYZDDCDA2B2C2D 2E2C CF2ZTDDDG2H2I2DAHJ2K 2DL2B AM2DD N2NDBSee There he stands not brave but with an air | A |
Of sullen stupor Mark him well Is he | B |
Not more like brute than man Look in his eye | C |
No light is there none save the glint that shines | D |
In the now glaring and now shifting orbs | D |
Of some wild animal caught in the hunter's trap | E |
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How came this beast in human shape and form | F |
Speak man We call you man because you wear | A |
His shape How are you thus Are you not from | G |
That docile child like tender hearted race | D |
Which we have known three centuries Not from | G |
That more than faithful race which through three wars | D |
Fed our dear wives and nursed our helpless babes | D |
Without a single breach of trust Speak out | H |
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I am and am not | I |
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Then who why are you | J |
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I am a thing not new I am as old | K |
As human nature I am that which lurks | D |
Ready to spring whenever a bar is loosed | L |
The ancient trait which fights incessantly | B |
Against restraint balks at the upward climb | M |
The weight forever seeking to obey | N |
The law of downward pull and I am more | O |
The bitter fruit am I of planted seed | P |
The resultant the inevitable end | Q |
Of evil forces and the powers of wrong | R |
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Lessons in degradation taught and learned | S |
The memories of cruel sights and deeds | D |
The pent up bitterness the unspent hate | T |
Filtered through fifteen generations have | U |
Sprung up and found in me sporadic life | V |
In me the muttered curse of dying men | W |
On me the stain of conquered women and | X |
Consuming me the fearful fires of lust | Y |
Lit long ago by other hands than mine | Z |
In me the down crushed spirit the hurled back prayers | D |
Of wretches now long dead their dire bequests | D |
In me the echo of the stifled cry | C |
Of children for their bartered mothers' breasts | D |
I claim no race no race claims me I am | A2 |
No more than human dregs degenerate | B2 |
The monstrous offspring of the monster Sin | C2 |
I am just what I am The race that fed | D2 |
Your wives and nursed your babes would do the same | E2 |
To day but I | C |
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Enough the brute must die | C |
Quick Chain him to that oak It will resist | F2 |
The fire much longer than this slender pine | Z |
Now bring the fuel Pile it 'round him Wait | T |
Pile not so fast or high or we shall lose | D |
The agony and terror in his face | D |
And now the torch Good fuel that the flames | D |
Already leap head high Ha hear that shriek | G2 |
And there's another wilder than the first | H2 |
Fetch water Water Pour a little on | I2 |
The fire lest it should burn too fast Hold so | D |
Now let it slowly blaze again See there | A |
He squirms He groans His eyes bulge wildly out | H |
Searching around in vain appeal for help | J2 |
Another shriek the last Watch how the flesh | K2 |
Grows crisp and hangs till turned to ash it sifts | D |
Down through the coils of chain that hold erect | L2 |
The ghastly frame against the bark scorched tree | B |
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Stop to each man no more than one man's share | A |
You take that bone and you this tooth the chain | M2 |
Let us divide its links this skull of course | D |
In fair division to the leader comes | D |
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And now his fiendish crime has been avenged | N2 |
Let us back to our wives and children Say | N |
What did he mean by those last muttered words | D |
Brothers in spirit brothers in deed are we | B |
James Weldon Johnson
(1)
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