Analysis of The Farewell
John Greenleaf Whittier 1807 (Haverhill) – 1892 (Hampton Falls)
Of A Virginia Slave Mother To Her Daughters Sold Into Southern Bondage
Gone, gone, -- sold and gone
To the rice-swamp dank and lone.
Where the slave-whip ceaseless swings
Where the noisome insect stings
Where the fever demon strews
Poison with the falling dews
Where the sickly sunbeams glare
Through the hot and misty air;
Gone, gone, -- sold and gone,
To the rice-swamp dank and lone,
From Virginia's hills and waters;
Woe is me, my stolen daughters!
Gone, gone, -- sold and gone
To the rice-swamp dank and lone
There no mother's eye is near them,
There no mother's ear can hear them;
Never, when the torturing lash
Seams their back with many a gash
Shall a mother's kindness bless them
Or a mother's arms caress them.
Gone, gone, -- sold and gone,
To the rice-swamp dank and lone,
From Virginia's hills and waters;
Woe is me, my stolen daughters!
Gone, gone, -- sold and gone,
To the rice-swamp dank and lone,
Oh, when weary, sad, and slow,
From the fields at night they go
Faint with toil, and racked with pain
To their cheerless homes again,
There no brother's voice shall greet them
There no father's welcome meet them.
Gone, gone, -- sold and gone,
To the rice-swamp dank and lone,
From Virginia's hills and waters;
Woe is me, my stolen daughters!
Gone, gone, -- sold and gone,
To the rice-swamp dank and lone
From the tree whose shadow lay
On their childhood's place of play;
From the cool sprmg where they drank;
Rock, and hill, and rivulet bank;
From the solemn house of prayer,
And the holy counsels there;
Gone, gone, -- sold and gone,
To the rice-swamp dank and lone,
From Virginia's hills and waters;
Woe is me, my stolen daughters!
Gone, gone, -- sold and gone,
To the rice-swamp dank and lone;
Toiling through the weary day,
And at night the spoiler's prey.
Oh, that they had earlier died,
Sleeping calmly, side by side,
Where the tyrant's power is o'er
And the fetter galls no more!
Gone, gone, -- sold and gone,
To the rice-swamp dank and lone;
From Virginia's hills and waters
Woe is me, my stolen daughters!
Gone, gone, -- sold and gone,
To the rice-swamp dank and lone;
By the holy love He beareth;
By the bruised reed He spareth;
Oh, may He, to whom alone
All their cruel wrongs are known,
Still their hope and refuge prove,
With a more than mother's love.
Gone, gone, -- sold and gone,
To the rice-swamp dank and lone,
From Virginia's hills and waters;
Woe is me, my stolen daughters!
Scheme | x ABcccxddABEE ABffggffABEE ABhhxxffABEE ABiijjddABEE ABiikkxxABEE ABllbbxxABEE |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1001011010101011010 11101 1011101 1011101 10111 1010101 1010101 101011 1010101 11101 1011101 10101010 11111010 11101 1011101 11101111 11101111 10101001 11111001 10101011 10101011 11101 1011101 10101010 11111010 11101 1011101 1110101 1011111 1110111 111101 11101111 11101011 11101 1011101 10101010 11111010 11101 1011101 101111 111111 1011111 101011 1010111 0010101 11101 1011101 10101010 11111010 11101 1011101 1010101 011011 11111001 1010111 10110110 0010111 11101 1011101 10101010 11111010 11101 1011101 1010111 101111 1111101 1110111 1110101 1011101 11101 1011101 10101010 11111010 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 2,409 |
Words | 437 |
Sentences | 13 |
Stanzas | 7 |
Stanza Lengths | 1, 12, 12, 12, 12, 12, 12 |
Lines Amount | 73 |
Letters per line (avg) | 25 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 261 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 62 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 21, 2023
- 2:16 min read
- 180 Views
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"The Farewell" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 14 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/23094/the-farewell>.
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