At Washington Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABABBCBCBBDEDEECFCFF DGDGGHIJIIKLKLLDMDMM KNKNNBBDBBKEKEEKMKMM DBDBBOBPBBDQDRQSBSBB CBCRBBBBBBSBSBBTUJUU DMDMMTBTBBVWVWWUBUBB DUDUUDPDPPVBVBBWITH 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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