Toussaint L-ouverture Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABABCDEEFFGGHHIIJJKK LLMMNJONJLPLPQQRRSST TQHHQSSQQSUSVJWXXFFS SYZA2A2SSNNB2C2D2D2E 2E2SSNA2F2A2WWKMKKG2 SSH2H2I2I2LLJ2J2K2K2 L2L2SSSSLC2LC2M2M2N2 D2O2O2D2WM2WM2P2P2LL Q2Q2P2D2P2D2B2LB2LR2 R2SSLLM2LM2LC2B2M2M2 S2T2U2U2V2W2W2QNNQP2 AP2AJJX2X2WSWSD2D2JJ P2P2M2M2SSP2P2Y2Y2Z2 Z2P2P2QQL2L2JJP2P2F2 F2A2A2A3A3D2B3D2B3D2 JD2D2D2JLWLWC3| 'T WAS night The tranquil moonlight smile | A |
| With which Heaven dreams of Earth shed down | B |
| Its beauty on the Indian isle | A |
| On broad green field and white walled town | B |
| And inland waste of rock and wood | C |
| In searching sunshine wild and rude | D |
| Rose mellowed through the silver gleam | E |
| Soft as the landscape of a dream | E |
| All motionless and dewy wet | F |
| Tree vine and flower in shadow met | F |
| The myrtle with its snowy bloom | G |
| Crossing the nightshade's solemn gloom | G |
| The white cecropia's silver rind | H |
| Relieved by deeper green behind | H |
| The orange with its fruit of gold | I |
| The lithe paullinia's verdant fold | I |
| The passion flower with symbol holy | J |
| Twining its tendrils long and lowly | J |
| The rhexias dark and cassia tall | K |
| And proudly rising over all | K |
| The kingly palm's imperial stem | L |
| Crowned with its leafy diadem | L |
| Star like beneath whose sombre shade | M |
| The fiery winged cucullo played | M |
| How lovely was thine aspect then | N |
| Fair island of the Western Sea | J |
| Lavish of beauty even whe | O |
| Thy brutes were happier than thy men | N |
| For they at least were free | J |
| Regardless of thy glorious clime | L |
| Unmindful of thy soil of flowers | P |
| The toiling negro sighed that Time | L |
| No faster sped his hours | P |
| For by the dewy moonlight still | Q |
| He fed the weary turning mill | Q |
| Or bent him in the chill morass | R |
| To pluck the long and tangled grass | R |
| And hear above his scar worn back | S |
| The heavy slave whip's frequent crack | S |
| While in his heart one evil thought | T |
| In solitary madness wrought | T |
| One baleful fire surviving still | Q |
| The quenching of the immortal mind | H |
| One sterner passion of his kind | H |
| Which even fetters could not kill | Q |
| The savage hope to deal erelong | S |
| A vengeance bitterer than his wrong | S |
| Hark to that cry long loud and shrill | Q |
| From field and forest rock and hill | Q |
| Thrilling and horrible it rang | S |
| Around beneath above | U |
| The wild beast from his cavern sprang | S |
| The wild bird from her grove | V |
| Nor fear nor joy nor agony | J |
| Were mingled in that midnight cry | W |
| But like the lion's growl of wrath | X |
| When falls that hunter in his path | X |
| Whose barbed arrow deeply set | F |
| Is rankling in his bosom yet | F |
| It told of hate full deep and strong | S |
| Of vengeance kindling out of wrong | S |
| It was as if the crimes of years | Y |
| The unrequited toil the tears | Z |
| The shame and hate which liken well | A2 |
| Earth's garden to the nether hell | A2 |
| Had found in nature's self a tongue | S |
| On which the gathered horror hung | S |
| As if from cliff and stream and glen | N |
| Burst on the startled ears of men | N |
| That voice which rises unto God | B2 |
| Solemn and stern the cry of blood | C2 |
| It ceased and all was still once more | D2 |
| Save ocean chafing on his shore | D2 |
| The sighing of the wind between | E2 |
| The broad banana's leaves of green | E2 |
| Or bough by restless plumage shook | S |
| Or murmuring voice of mountain brook | S |
| Brief was the silence Once again | N |
| Pealed to the skies that frantic yell | A2 |
| Glowed on the heavens a fiery stain | F2 |
| And flashes rose and fell | A2 |
| And painted on the blood red sky | W |
| Dark naked arms were tossed on high | W |
| And round the white man's lordly hall | K |
| Trod fierce and free the brute he made | M |
| And those who crept along the wall | K |
| And answered to his lightest call | K |
| With more than spaniel dread | G2 |
| The creatures of his lawless beck | S |
| Were trampling on his very neck | S |
| And on the night air wild and clear | H2 |
| Rose woman's shriek of more than fear | H2 |
| For bloodied arms were round her thrown | I2 |
| Aan dark cheeks pressed against her own | I2 |
| Then injured Afric for the shame | L |
| Of thy own daughters vengeance came | L |
| Full on the scornful hearts of those | J2 |
| Who mocked thee in thy nameless woes | J2 |
| And to thy hapless children gave | K2 |
| One choice pollution or the grave | K2 |
| Where then was he whose fiery zeal | L2 |
| Had taught the trampled heart to feel | L2 |
| Until despair itself grew strong | S |
| And vengeance fed its torch from wrong | S |
| Now when the thunderbolt is speeding | S |
| Now when oppression's heart is bleeding | S |
| Now when the latent curse of Time | L |
| Is raining down in fire and blood | C2 |
| That curse which through long years of crime | L |
| Has gathered drop by drop its flood | C2 |
| Why strikes he not the foremost one | M2 |
| Where murder's sternest deeds are done | M2 |
| He stood the aged palms beneath | N2 |
| That shadowed o'er his humble door | D2 |
| Listening with half suspended breath | O2 |
| To the wild sounds of fear and death | O2 |
| Toussaint L'Ouverture | D2 |
| What marvel that his heart beat high | W |
| The blow for freedom had been given | M2 |
| And blood had answered to the cry | W |
| Which Earth sent up to Heaven | M2 |
| What marvel that a fierce delight | P2 |
| Smiled grimly o'er his brow of night | P2 |
| As groan and shout and bursting flame | L |
| Told where the midnight tempest came | L |
| With blood and fire along its van | Q2 |
| And death behind he was a Man | Q2 |
| Yes dark souled chieftain if the light | P2 |
| Of mild Religion's heavenly ray | D2 |
| Unveiled not to thy mental sight | P2 |
| The lowlier and the purer way | D2 |
| In which the Holy Sufferer trod | B2 |
| Meekly amidst the sons of crime | L |
| That calm reliance upon God | B2 |
| For justice in His own good time | L |
| That gentleness to which belongs | R2 |
| Forgiveness for its many wrongs | R2 |
| Even as the primal martyr kneeling | S |
| For mercy on the evil dealing | S |
| Let not the favored white man name | L |
| Thy stern appeal with words of blame | L |
| Has he not with the light of heaven | M2 |
| Broadly around him made the same | L |
| Yea on his thousand war fields striven | M2 |
| And gloried in his ghastly shame | L |
| Kneeling amidst his brother's blood | C2 |
| To offer mockery unto God | B2 |
| As if the High and Holy One | M2 |
| Could smile on deeds of murder done | M2 |
| As if a human sacrifice | S2 |
| Were purer in His holy eyes | T2 |
| Though offered up by Christian hands | U2 |
| Than the foul rites of Pagan lands | U2 |
| V2 | |
| Sternly amidst his household band | W2 |
| His carbine grasped within his hand | W2 |
| The white man stood prepared and still | Q |
| Waiting the shock of maddened men | N |
| Unchained and fierce as tigers when | N |
| The horn winds through their caverned hill | Q |
| And one was weeping in his sight | P2 |
| The sweetest flower of all the isle | A |
| The bride who seemed but yesternight | P2 |
| Love's fair embodied smile | A |
| And clinging to her trembling knee | J |
| Looked up the form of infancy | J |
| With tearful glance in either face | X2 |
| The secret of its fear to trace | X2 |
| 'Ha stand or die ' The white man's eye | W |
| His steady musket gleamed along | S |
| As a tall Negro hastened nigh | W |
| With fearless step and strong | S |
| 'What ho Toussaint ' A moment more | D2 |
| His shadow crossed the lighted floor | D2 |
| 'Away ' he shouted 'fly with me | J |
| The white man's bark is on the sea | J |
| Her sails must catch the seaward wind | P2 |
| For sudden vengeance sweeps behind | P2 |
| Our brethren from their graves have spoken | M2 |
| The yoke is spurned the chain is broken | M2 |
| On all the hills our fires are glowing | S |
| Through all the vales red blood is flowing | S |
| No more the mocking White shall rest | P2 |
| His foot upon the Negro's breast | P2 |
| No more at morn or eve shall drip | Y2 |
| The warm blood from the driver's whip | Y2 |
| Yet though Tonssaint has vengeance sworn | Z2 |
| For all the wrongs his race have borne | Z2 |
| Though for each drop of Negro blood | P2 |
| The white man's veins shall pour a flood | P2 |
| Not all alone the sense of ill | Q |
| Around his heart is lingering still | Q |
| Nor deeper can the white man feel | L2 |
| The generous warmth of grateful zeal | L2 |
| Friends of the Negro fly with me | J |
| The path is open to the sea | J |
| Away for life ' He spoke and pressed | P2 |
| The young child to his manly breast | P2 |
| As headlong through the cracking cane | F2 |
| Down swept the dark insurgent train | F2 |
| Drunken and grim with shout and yell | A2 |
| Howled through the dark like sounds from hell | A2 |
| Far out in peace the white man's sail | A3 |
| Swayed free before the sunrise gale | A3 |
| Cloud like that island hung afar | D2 |
| Along the bright horizon's verge | B3 |
| O'er which the curse of servile war | D2 |
| Rolled its red torrent surge on surge | B3 |
| And he the Negro champion where | D2 |
| In the fierce tumult struggled he | J |
| Go trace him by the fiery glare | D2 |
| Of dwellings in the midnight air | D2 |
| The yells of triumph and despair | D2 |
| The streams that crimson to the sea | J |
| Sleep calmly in thy dungeon tomb | L |
| Beneath Besan on's alien sky | W |
| Dark Haytien for the time shall come | L |
| Yea even now is nigh | W |
| When everywhere thy name sh | C3 |
John Greenleaf Whittier
(1)
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About Toussaint L-ouverture
Toussaint L-ouverture 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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