The Christian Slave Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABBCDCCDEFFEGHGIJKIL MMNOPPOQRRQSTTSUQQUO VVOWQQWXFFXWSSWXYYX| A CHRISTIAN going gone | A |
| Who bids for God's own image for his grace | B |
| Which that poor victim of the market place | B |
| Hath in her suffering won | C |
| My God can such things be | D |
| Hast Thou not said that whatsoe'er is done | C |
| Unto Thy weakest and Thy humblest one | C |
| Is even done to Thee | D |
| In that sad victim then | E |
| Child of Thy pitying love I see Thee stand | F |
| Once more the jest word of a mocking band | F |
| Bound sold and scourged again | E |
| A Christian up for sale | G |
| Wet with her blood your whips o'ertask her frame | H |
| Make her life loathsome with your wrong and shame Her patience shall not fail | G |
| A heathen hand might deal | I |
| Back on your heads the gathered wrong of years | J |
| But her low broken prayer and nightly tears | K |
| Ye neither heed nor feel | I |
| Con well thy lesson o'er | L |
| Thou prudent teacher tell the toiling slave | M |
| No dangerous tale of Him who came to save | M |
| The outcast and the poor | N |
| But wisely shut the ray | O |
| Of God's free Gospel from her simple heart | P |
| And to her darkened mind alone impart | P |
| One stern command Obey | O |
| So shalt thou deftly raise | Q |
| The market price of human flesh and while | R |
| On thee their pampered guest the planters smile | R |
| Thy church shall praise | Q |
| Grave reverend men shall tell | S |
| From Northern pulpits how thy work was blest | T |
| While in that vile South Sodom first and best | T |
| Thy poor disciples sell | S |
| Oh shame the Moslem thrall | U |
| Who with his master to the Prophet kneels | Q |
| While turning to the sacred Kebla feels | Q |
| His fetters break and fall | U |
| Cheers for the turbaned Bey | O |
| Of robber peopled Tunis he hath torn | V |
| The dark slave dungeons open and hath borne | V |
| Their inmates into day | O |
| But our poor slave in vain | W |
| Turns to the Christian shrine his aching eyes | Q |
| Its rites will only swell his market price | Q |
| And rivet on his chain | W |
| God of all right how long | X |
| Shall priestly robbers at Thine altar stand | F |
| Lifting in prayer to Thee the bloody hand | F |
| And haughty brow of wrong | X |
| Oh from the fields of cane | W |
| From the low rice swamp from the trader's cell | S |
| From the black slave ship's foul and loathsome hell | S |
| And coffle's weary chain | W |
| Hoarse horrible and strong | X |
| Rises to Heaven that agonizing cry | Y |
| Filling the arches of the hollow sky | Y |
| How long O God how long | X |
John Greenleaf Whittier
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
About The Christian Slave
The Christian Slave is a poem by John Greenleaf Whittier. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.
Write your comment about The Christian Slave poem by John Greenleaf Whittier
Best Poems of John Greenleaf Whittier