Analysis of A Song For The Time
John Greenleaf Whittier 1807 (Haverhill) – 1892 (Hampton Falls)
UP, laggards of Freedom! — our free flag is cast
To the blaze of the sun and the wings of the blast;
Will ye turn from a struggle so bravely begun,
From a foe that is breaking, a field that's half won?
Whoso loves not his kind, and who fears not the Lord,
Let him join that foe's service, accursed and abhorred!
Let him do his base will, as the slave only can, —
Let him put on the bloodhound, and put off the Man!
Let him go where the cold blood that creeps in his veins
Shall stiffen the slave-whip, and rust on his chains;
Where the black slave shall laugh in his bonds, to behold
The White Slave beside him, self-lettered and sold!
But ye, who still boast of hearts beating and warm,
Rise, from lake shore and ocean's, like waves in a storm,
Come, throng round our banner in Liberty's name,
Like winds from your mountains, like prairies aflame!
Our foe, hidden long in his ambush of night,
Now, forced from his covert, stands black in the light.
Oh, the cruel to Man, and the hateful to God,
Smite him down to the earth, that is cursed where he trod!
For deeper than thunder of summer's loud shower,
On the dome of the sky God is striking the hour!
Shall we falter before what we're prayed for so long,
When the Wrong is so weak, and the Right is so strong?
Come forth all together! come old and come young,
Freedom's vote in each hand, and her song on each tongue;
Truth naked is stronger than Falsehood in mail;
The Wrong cannot prosper, the Right cannot fail!
Like leaves of the summer once numbered the foe,
But the hoar-frost is falling, the northern winds blow;
Like leaves of November erelong shall they fall,
For earth wearies of them, and God's over all!
Scheme | AABBCCDDEEFFGGHHIIJJKKLLMMNNOOPP |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 110110101111 101101001101 111101011001 101111001111 11111011101 11111101001 111111101101 111101001101 111101111011 11001101111 101111011101 01101111001 11111111001 111101011001 111101001001 11111011001 10110101111 11111011001 101011001011 111101111111 110110110110 1011011110010 111001111111 101111001111 11101011011 101011001111 1101101101 01101001101 11101011001 101111001011 1110101111 1111101101 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 1,648 |
Words | 317 |
Sentences | 14 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 32 |
Lines Amount | 32 |
Letters per line (avg) | 40 |
Words per line (avg) | 10 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 1,284 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 315 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:37 min read
- 126 Views
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"A Song For The Time" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/22823/a-song-for-the-time>.
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