Uncle Jim's Baptist Revival Hymn Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BCDEFGH BFHIJKLMNOIP QIPLIB RRRRR SRSRR TRTRR URURR VRVRR URURR WRWRR| By Sidney and Clifford Lanier | A |
| - | |
| Not long ago a certain Georgia cotton planter driven to desperation | B |
| by awaking each morning to find that the grass had | C |
| quite outgrown the cotton overnight and was likely to choke it | D |
| in defiance of his lazy freedmen's hoes and ploughs | E |
| set the whole State in a laugh by exclaiming to a group of fellow sufferers | F |
| It's all stuff about Cincinnatus leaving the plough to go into politics | G |
| FOR PATRIOTISM he was just a runnin' from grass | H |
| - | |
| This state of things when the delicate young rootlets of the cotton | B |
| are struggling against the hardier multitudes of the grass suckers | F |
| is universally described in plantation parlance by the phrase in the grass | H |
| and Uncle Jim appears to have found in it so much similarity | I |
| to the condition of his own Baptis' church overrun as it was | J |
| by the cares of this world that he has embodied it in the refrain | K |
| of a revival hymn such as the colored improvisator of the South | L |
| not infrequently constructs from his daily surroundings | M |
| He has drawn all the ideas of his stanzas from the early morning phenomena of | N |
| those critical weeks when the loud plantation horn is blown before daylight | O |
| in order to rouse all hands for a long day's fight against the common enemy | I |
| of cotton planting mankind | P |
| - | |
| In addition to these exegetical commentaries the Northern reader | Q |
| probably needs to be informed that the phrase peerten up means substantially | I |
| to spur up' and is an active form of the adjective peert | P |
| probably a corruption of pert' which is so common in the South | L |
| and which has much the signification of smart in New England as e g | I |
| a peert horse in antithesis to a sorry i e poor mean lazy one | B |
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| - | |
| - | |
| Solo Sin's rooster's crowed Ole Mahster's riz | R |
| De sleepin' time is pas' | R |
| Wake up dem lazy Baptissis | R |
| Chorus Dey's mightily in de grass grass | R |
| Dey's mightily in de grass | R |
| - | |
| Ole Mahster's blowed de mornin' horn | S |
| He's blowed a powerful blas' | R |
| O Baptis' come come hoe de corn | S |
| You's mightily in de grass grass | R |
| You's mightily in de grass | R |
| - | |
| De Meth'dis team's done hitched O fool | T |
| De day's a breakin' fas' | R |
| Gear up dat lean ole Baptis' mule | T |
| Dey's mightily in de grass grass | R |
| Dey's mightily in de grass | R |
| - | |
| De workmen's few an' mons'rous slow | U |
| De cotton's sheddin' fas' | R |
| Whoop look jes' look at de Baptis' row | U |
| Hit's mightily in de grass grass | R |
| Hit's mightily in de grass | R |
| - | |
| De jay bird squeal to de mockin' bird Stop | V |
| Don' gimme none o' yo' sass | R |
| Better sing one song for de Baptis' crop | V |
| Dey's mightily in de grass grass | R |
| Dey's mightily in de grass | R |
| - | |
| And de ole crow croak Don' work no no | U |
| But de fiel' lark say Yaas yaas | R |
| An' I spec' you mighty glad you debblish crow | U |
| Dat de Baptissis's in de grass grass | R |
| Dat de Baptissis's in de grass | R |
| - | |
| Lord thunder us up to de plowin' match | W |
| Lord peerten de hoein' fas' | R |
| Yea Lord hab mussy on de Baptis' patch | W |
| Dey's mightily in de grass grass | R |
| Dey's mightily in de grass | R |
Sidney Lanier
(1)
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