Abolition Of Slavery In The District Of Columbia, 1862 Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABBACDDEFGGFHIIHJKKJ LAAMNOONPQQPRJJRKSSK BTTBQUUQVWWVRXXRYZZY A2B2B2A2C2D2D2C2When first I saw our banner wave | A |
Above the nation's council hall | B |
I heard beneath its marble wall | B |
The clanking fetters of the slave | A |
In the foul market place I stood | C |
And saw the Christian mother sold | D |
And childhood with its locks of gold | D |
Blue eyed and fair with Saxon blood | E |
I shut my eyes I held my breath | F |
And smothering down the wrath and shame | G |
That set my Northern blood aflame | G |
Stood silent where to speak was death | F |
Beside me gloomed the prison cell | H |
Where wasted one in slow decline | I |
For uttering simple words of mine | I |
And loving freedom all too well | H |
The flag that floated from the dome | J |
Flapped menace in the morning air | K |
I stood a perilled stranger where | K |
The human broker made his home | J |
For crime was virtue Gown and Sword | L |
And Law their threefold sanction gave | A |
And to the quarry of the slave | A |
Went hawking with our symbol bird | M |
On the oppressor's side was power | N |
And yet I knew that every wrong | O |
However old however strong | O |
But waited God's avenging hour | N |
I knew that truth would crush the lie | P |
Somehow some time the end would be | Q |
Yet scarcely dared I hope to see | Q |
The triumph with my mortal eye | P |
But now I see it In the sun | R |
A free flag floats from yonder dome | J |
And at the nation's hearth and home | J |
The justice long delayed is done | R |
Not as we hoped in calm of prayer | K |
The message of deliverance comes | S |
But heralded by roll of drums | S |
On waves of battle troubled air | K |
Midst sounds that madden and appall | B |
The song that Bethlehem's shepherds knew | T |
The harp of David melting through | T |
The demon agonies of Saul | B |
Not as we hoped but what are we | Q |
Above our broken dreams and plans | U |
God lays with wiser hand than man's | U |
The corner stones of liberty | Q |
I cavil not with Him the voice | V |
That freedom's blessed gospel tells | W |
Is sweet to me as silver bells | W |
Rejoicing yea I will rejoice | V |
Dear friends still toiling in the sun | R |
Ye dearer ones who gone before | X |
Are watching from the eternal shore | X |
The slow work by your hands begun | R |
Rejoice with me The chastening rod | Y |
Blossoms with love the furnace heat | Z |
Grows cool beneath His blessed feet | Z |
Whose form is as the Son of God | Y |
Rejoice Our Marah's bitter springs | A2 |
Are sweetened on our ground of grief | B2 |
Rise day by day in strong relief | B2 |
The prophecies of better things | A2 |
Rejoice in hope The day and night | C2 |
Are one with God and one with them | D2 |
Who see by faith the cloudy hem | D2 |
Of Judgment fringed with Mercy's light | C2 |
John Greenleaf Whittier
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