At Washington Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABABBCBCBBDEDEECFCFF DGDGGHIJIIKLKLLDMDMM KNKNNBBDBBKEKEEKMKMM DBDBBOBPBBDQDRQSBSBB CBCRBBBBBBSBSBBTUJUU DMDMMTBTBBVWVWWUBUBB DUDUUDPDPPVBVBB| WITH a cold and wintry noon light | A |
| On its roofs and steeples shed | B |
| Shadows weaving with t e sunlight | A |
| From the gray sky overhead | B |
| Broadly vaguely all around me lies the half built town outspread | B |
| Through this broad street restless ever | C |
| Ebbs and flows a human tide | B |
| Wave on wave a living river | C |
| Wealth and fashion side by side | B |
| Toiler idler slave and master in the same quick current glide | B |
| Underneath yon dome whose coping | D |
| Springs above them vast and tall | E |
| Grave men in the dust are groping | D |
| For the largess base and small | E |
| Which the hand of Power is scattering crumbs which from its table fall | E |
| Base of heart They vilely barter | C |
| Honor's wealth for party's place | F |
| Step by step on Freedom's charter | C |
| Leaving footprints of disgrace | F |
| For to day's poor pittance turning from the great hope of their race | F |
| Yet where festal lamps are throwing | D |
| Glory round the dancer's hair | G |
| Gold tressed like an angel's flowing | D |
| Backward on the sunset air | G |
| And the low quick pulse of music beats its measure sweet and rare | G |
| There to night shall woman's glances | H |
| Star like welcome give to them | I |
| Fawning fools with shy advances | J |
| Seek to touch their garments' hem | I |
| With the tongue of flattery glozing deeds which God and Truth condemn | I |
| From this glittering lie my vision | K |
| Takes a broader sadder range | L |
| Full before me have arisen | K |
| Other pictures dark and strange | L |
| From the parlor to the prison must the scene and witness change | L |
| Hark the heavy gate is swinging | D |
| On its hinges harsh and slow | M |
| One pale prison lamp is flinging | D |
| On a fearful group below | M |
| Such a light as leaves to terror whatsoe'er it does not show | M |
| Pitying God Is that a woman | K |
| On whose wrist the shackles clash | N |
| Is that shriek she utters human | K |
| Underneath the stinging lash | N |
| Are they men whose eyes of madness from that sad procession flash | N |
| Still the dance goes gayly onward | B |
| What is it to Wealth and Pride | B |
| That without the stars are looking | D |
| On a scene which earth should hide | B |
| That the slave ship lies in waiting rocking on Potomac's tide | B |
| Vainly to that mean Ambition | K |
| Which upon a rival's fall | E |
| Winds above its old condition | K |
| With a reptile's slimy crawl | E |
| Shall the pleading voice of sorrow shall the slave in anguish call | E |
| Vainly to the child of Fashion | K |
| Giving to ideal woe | M |
| Graceful luxury of compassion | K |
| Shall the stricken mourner go | M |
| Hateful seems the earnest sorrow beautiful the hollow show | M |
| Nay my words are all too sweeping | D |
| In this crowded human mart | B |
| Feeling is not dead but sleeping | D |
| Man's strong will and woman's heart | B |
| In the coming strife for Freedom yet shall bear their generous part | B |
| And from yonder sunny valleys | O |
| Southward in the distance lost | B |
| Freedom yet shall summon allies | P |
| Worthier than the North can boast | B |
| With the Evil by their hearth stones grappling at severer cost | B |
| Now the soul alone is willing | D |
| Faint the heart and weak the knee | Q |
| And as yet no lip is thrilling | D |
| With the mighty words 'Be Free ' | R |
| Tarrieth long the land's Good Angel but his advent is to be | Q |
| Meanwhile turning from the revel | S |
| To the prison cell my sight | B |
| For intenser hate of evil | S |
| For a keener sense of right | B |
| Shaking off thy dust I thank thee City of the Slaves to night | B |
| 'To thy duty now and ever | C |
| Dream no more of rest or stay | B |
| Give to Freedom's great endeavor | C |
| All thou art and hast to day ' | R |
| Thus above the city's murmur saith a Voice or seems to say | B |
| Ye with heart and vision gifted | B |
| To discern and love the right | B |
| Whose worn faces have been lifted | B |
| To the slowly growing light | B |
| Where from Freedom's sunrise drifted slowly back the murk of night | B |
| Ye who through long years of trial | S |
| Still have held your purpose fast | B |
| While a lengthening shade the dial | S |
| From the westering sunshine cast | B |
| And of hope each hour's denial seemed an echo of the last | B |
| O my brothers O my sisters | T |
| Would to God that ye were near | U |
| Gazing with me down the vistas | J |
| Of a sorrow strange and drear | U |
| Would to God that ye were listeners to the Voice I seem to hear | U |
| With the storm above us driving | D |
| With the false earth mined below | M |
| Who shall marvel if thus striving | D |
| We have counted friend as foe | M |
| Unto one another giving in the darkness blow for blow | M |
| Well it may be that our natures | T |
| Have grown sterner and more hard | B |
| And the freshness of their features | T |
| Somewhat harsh and battle scarred | B |
| And their harmonies of feeling overtasked and rudely jarred | B |
| Be it so It should not swerve us | V |
| From a purpose true and brave | W |
| Dearer Freedom's rugged service | V |
| Than the pastime of the slave | W |
| Better is the storm above it than the quiet of the grave | W |
| Let us then uniting bury | U |
| All our idle feuds in dust | B |
| And to future conflicts carry | U |
| Mutual faith and common trust | B |
| Always he who most forgiveth in his brother is most just | B |
| From the eternal shadow rounding | D |
| All our sun and starlight here | U |
| Voices of our lost ones sounding | D |
| Bid us be of heart and cheer | U |
| Through the silence down the spaces falling on the inward ear | U |
| Know we not our dead are looking | D |
| Downward with a sad surprise | P |
| All our strife of words rebuking | D |
| With their mild and loving eyes | P |
| Shall we grieve the holy angels Shall we cloud their blessed skies | P |
| Let us draw their mantles o'er us | V |
| Which have fallen in our way | B |
| Let us do the work before us | V |
| Cheerly bravely while we may | B |
| Ere the long night silence cometh and with us it is not day | B |
John Greenleaf Whittier
(1)
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At Washington is a poem by John Greenleaf Whittier. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.
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