Democracy Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABABCDCDEFFFGFGFHIHI JKLKMNMNOPOPFQFRPSPS FPFPTITIFFFFFUFUFVFV FWFWFXFXYZYZ| BEARER of Freedom's holy light | A |
| Breaker of Slavery's chain and rod | B |
| The foe of all which pains the sight | A |
| Or wounds the generous ear of God | B |
| Beautiful yet thy temples rise | C |
| Though there profaning gifts are thrown | D |
| And fires unkindled of the skies | C |
| Are glaring round thy altar stone | D |
| Still sacred though thy name be breathed | E |
| By those whose hearts thy truth deride | F |
| And garlands plucked from thee are wreathed | F |
| Around the haughty brows of Pride | F |
| Oh ideal of my boyhood's time | G |
| The faith in which my father stood | F |
| Even when the sons of Lust and Crime | G |
| Had stained thy peaceful courts with blood | F |
| Still to those courts my footsteps turn | H |
| For through the mists which darken there | I |
| I see the flame of Freedom burn | H |
| The Kebla of the patriot's prayer | I |
| The generous feeling pure and warm | J |
| Which owns the right of all divine | K |
| The pitying heart the helping arm | L |
| The prompt self sacrifice are thine | K |
| Beneath thy broad impartial eye | M |
| How fade the lines of caste and birth | N |
| How equal in their suffering lie | M |
| The groaning multides of earth | N |
| Still to a stricken brother true | O |
| Whatever clime hath nurtured him | P |
| As stooped to heal the wounded Jew | O |
| The worshipper of Gerizim | P |
| By misery unrepelled unawed | F |
| By pomp or power thou seest a Man | Q |
| In prince or peasant slave or lord | F |
| Pale priest or swarthy artisan | R |
| Through all disguise form place or name | P |
| Beneath the flaunting robes of sin | S |
| Through poverty and squalid shame | P |
| Thou lookest on the man within | S |
| On man as man retaining yet | F |
| Howe'er debased and soiled and dim | P |
| The crown upon his forehead set | F |
| The immortal gift of God to him | P |
| And there is reverence in thy look | T |
| For that frail form which mortals wear | I |
| The Spirit of the Holiest took | T |
| And veiled His perfect brightness there | I |
| Not from the shallow babbling fount | F |
| Of vain philosophy thou art | F |
| He who of old on Syria's Mount | F |
| Thrilled warmed by turns the listener's heart | F |
| In holy words which cannot die | F |
| In thoughts which angels leaned to know | U |
| Proclaimed thy message from on high | F |
| Thy mission to a world of woe | U |
| That voice's echo hath not died | F |
| From the blue lake of Galilee | V |
| And Tabor's lonely mountain side | F |
| It calls a struggling world to thee | V |
| Thy name and watchword o'er this land | F |
| I hear in every breeze that stirs | W |
| And round a thousand altars stand | F |
| Thy banded party worshippers | W |
| Not to these altars of a day | F |
| At party's call my gift I bring | X |
| But on thy olden shrine I lay | F |
| A freeman's dearest offering | X |
| The voiceless utterance of his will | Y |
| His pledge to Freedom and to Truth | Z |
| That manhood's heart remembers still | Y |
| The homage of his generous youth | Z |
John Greenleaf Whittier
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