Analysis of Kossuth

John Greenleaf Whittier 1807 (Haverhill) – 1892 (Hampton Falls)



Type of two mighty continents!--combining
The strength of Europe with the warmth and glow
Of Asian song and prophecy,--the shining
Of Orient splendors over Northern snow!
Who shall receive him? Who, unblushing, speak
Welcome to him, who, while he strove to break
The Austrian yoke from Magyar necks, smote off
At the same blow the fetters of the serf,
Rearing the altar of his Fatherland
On the firm base of freedom, and thereby
Lifting to Heaven a patriot's stainless hand,
Mocked not the God of Justice with a lie!
Who shall be Freedom's mouthpiece? Who shall give
Her welcoming cheer to the great fugitive?
Not he who, all her sacred trusts betraying,
Is scourging back to slavery's hell of pain
The swarthy Kossuths of our land again!
Not he whose utterance now from lips designed
The bugle-march of Liberty to wind,
And call her hosts beneath the breaking light,
The keen reveille of her morn of fight,
Is but the hoarse note of the blood-hound's baying,
The wolf's long howl behind the bondman's flight!
Oh for the tongue of him who lies at rest
In Quincy's shade of patrimonial trees,
Last of the Puritan tribunes and the best,
To lend a voice to Freedom's sympathies,
And hail the coming of the noblest guest
The Old World's wrong has given the New World of the West!


Scheme ABABCDEFGHGHIIAJKLLMMAMNONONN
Poetic Form
Metre 11110100010 0111010101 11010100010 110110101 11011111 1011111111 0100111111 1011010101 100101110 1011110011 101100100101 1101110101 111101111 01001101100 11110101010 110111111 0101110101 11110011101 0101110011 0101010101 01110111 11011101110 011101011 1101111111 010111001 1101001001 1101110100 0101010101 0111110011101
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 1,255
Words 229
Sentences 10
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 29
Lines Amount 29
Letters per line (avg) 35
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 1,009
Words per stanza (avg) 225
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:11 min read
41

John Greenleaf Whittier

John Greenleaf Whittier was an influential American Quaker poet and ardent advocate of the abolition of slavery in the United States. more…

All John Greenleaf Whittier poems | John Greenleaf Whittier Books

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