Analysis of Bible Defense Of Slavery



Take sackcloth of the darkest dye,
   And shroud the pulpits round!
Servants of Him that cannot lie,
   Sit mourning on the ground.

Let holy horror blanch each cheek,
   Pale every brow with fears;
And rocks and stones, if ye could speak,
   Ye well might melt to tears!

Let sorrow breathe in every tone,
   In every strain ye raise;
Insult not God's majestic throne
   With th' mockery of praise.

A 'reverend' man, whose light should be
   The guide of age and youth,
Brings to the shrine of Slavery
   The sacrifice of truth!

For the direst wrong by man imposed,
   Since Sodom's fearful cry,
The word of life has been unclos'd,
   To give your God the lie.

Oh! When ye pray for heathen lands,
   And plead for their dark shores,
Remember Slavery's cruel hands
   Make heathens at your doors!


Scheme ABAB CXCX DEDE FGFG XABA HIHI
Poetic Form Quatrain  (83%)
Metre 1110101 010101 10111101 110101 11010111 1100111 01011111 111111 110101001 0100111 01110101 11110011 010011111 011101 11011100 01011 101011101 11101 0111111 111101 11111101 011111 0101101 11111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 784
Words 139
Sentences 9
Stanzas 6
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 24
Letters per line (avg) 25
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 99
Words per stanza (avg) 23
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 15, 2023

42 sec read
100

Frances Ellen Watkins Harper

Frances Ellen Watkins Harper born to free parents in Baltimore Maryland was an African American abolitionist and poet more…

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