The Pastoral Letter Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AA BCB DEFFGFHFIJIJKFLFMNMO PCPCQNQNRFR STUTVTWTXNXNOTOTXYXY TYTYXYXYTNTNFNFNXFX ONONXFXFYTYTZFZFTJTJ XGXGXNXNXNXNA2YA2YUN UNTNTNA | |
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So this is all the utmost reach | B |
Of priestly power the mind to fetter | C |
When laymen think when women preach | B |
A war of words a 'Pastoral Letter ' | - |
Now shame upon ye parish Popes | D |
Was it thus with those your predecessors | E |
Who sealed with racks and fire and ropes | F |
Their loving kindness to transgressors | F |
A 'Pastoral Letter ' grave and dull | G |
Alas in hoof and horns and features | F |
How different is your Brookfield bull | H |
From him who bellows from St Peter's | F |
Your pastoral rights and powers from harm | I |
Think ye can words alone preserve them | J |
Your wiser fathers taught the arm | I |
And sword of temporal power to serve them | J |
Oh glorious days when Church and State | K |
Were wedded by your spiritual fathers | F |
And on submissive shoulders sat | L |
Your Wilsons and your Cotton Mathers | F |
No vile 'itinerant' then could mar | M |
The beauty of your tranquil Zion | N |
But at his peril of the scar | M |
Of hangman's whip and branding iron | O |
Then wholesome laws relieved the Church | P |
Of heretic and mischief maker | C |
And priest and bailiff joined in search | P |
By turns of Papist witch and Quaker | C |
The stocks were at each church's door | Q |
The gallows stood on Boston Common | N |
A Papist's ears the pillory bore | Q |
The gallows rope a Quaker woman | N |
Your fathers dealt not as ye deal | R |
With 'non professing' frantic teachers | F |
They bored the tongue with red hot steel | R |
And flayed the backs of 'female preachers ' | - |
Old Hampton had her fields a tongue | S |
And Salem's streets could tell their story | T |
Of fainting woman dragged along | U |
Gashed by the whip accursed and gory | T |
And will ye ask me why this taunt | V |
Of memories sacred from the scorner | T |
And why with reckless hand I plant | W |
A nettle on the graves ye honor | T |
Not to reproach New England's dead | X |
This record from the past I summon | N |
Of manhood to the scaffold led | X |
And suffering and heroic woman | N |
No for yourselves alone I turn | O |
The pages of intolerance over | T |
That in their spirit dark and stern | O |
Ye haply may your own discover | T |
For if ye claim the 'pastoral right' | X |
To silence Freedom's voice of warning | Y |
And from your precincts shut the light | X |
Of Freedom's day around ye dawning | Y |
If when an earthquake voice of power | T |
And signs in earth and heaven are showing | Y |
That forth in its appointed hour | T |
The Spirit of the Lord is going | Y |
And with that Spirit Freedom's light | X |
On kindred tongue and people breaking | Y |
Whose slumbering millions at the sight | X |
In glory and in strength are waking | Y |
When for the sighing of the poor | T |
And for the needy God hath risen | N |
And chains are breaking and a door | T |
Is opening for the souls in prison | N |
If then ye would with puny hands | F |
Arrest the very work of Heaven | N |
And bind anew the evil bands | F |
Which God's right arm of power hath riven | N |
What marvel that in many a mind | X |
Those darker deeds of bigot madness | F |
Are closely with your own combined | X |
Yet 'less in anger than in sadness ' | - |
What marvel if the people learn | O |
To claim the right of free opinion | N |
What marvel if at times they spurn | O |
The ancient yoke of your dominion | N |
A glorious remnant linger yet | X |
Whose lips are wet at Freedom's fountains | F |
The coming of whose welcome feet | X |
Is beautiful upon our mountains | F |
Men who the gospel tidings bring | Y |
Of Liberty and Love forever | T |
Whose joy is an abiding spring | Y |
Whose peace is as a gentle river | T |
But ye who scorn the thrilling tale | Z |
Of Carolina's high souled daughters | F |
Which echoes here the mournful wail | Z |
Of sorrow from Edisto's waters | F |
Close while ye may the public ear | T |
With malice vex with slander wound them | J |
The pure and good shall throng to hear | T |
And tried and manly hearts surround them | J |
Oh ever may the power which led | X |
Their way to such a fiery trial | G |
And strengthened womanhood to tread | X |
The wine press of such self denial | G |
Be round them in an evil land | X |
With wisdom and with strength from Heaven | N |
With Miriam's voice and Judith's hand | X |
And Deborah's song for triumph given | N |
And what are ye who strive with God | X |
Against the ark of His salvation | N |
Moved by the breath of prayer abroad | X |
With blessings for a dying nation | N |
What but the stubble and the hay | A2 |
To perish even as flax consuming | Y |
With all that bars His glorious way | A2 |
Before the brightness of His coming | Y |
And thou sad Angel who so long | U |
Hast waited for the glorious token | N |
That Earth from all her bonds of wrong | U |
To liberty and light has broken | N |
Angel of Freedom soon to thee | T |
The sounding trumpet shall be given | N |
And over Earth's full jubilee | T |
Shall deeper joy be felt in Heaven | N |
John Greenleaf Whittier
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