Analysis of For Righteousness' Sake
John Greenleaf Whittier 1807 (Haverhill) – 1892 (Hampton Falls)
THE age is dull and mean. Men creep,
Not walk; with blood too pale and tame
To pay the debt they owe to shame;
Buy cheap, sell dear; eat, drink, and sleep
Down-pillowed, deaf to moaning want;
Pay tithes for soul-insurance; keep
Six days to Mammon, one to Cant.
In such a time, give thanks to God,
That somewhat of the holy rage
With which the prophets in their age
On all its decent seemings trod,
Has set your feet upon the lie,
That man and ox and soul and clod
Are market stock to sell and buy!
The hot words from your lips, my own,
To caution trained, might not repeat;
But if some tares among the wheat
Of generous thought and deed were sown,
No common wrong provoked your zeal;
The silken gauntlet that is thrown
In such a quarrel rings like steel.
The brave old strife the fathers saw
For freedom calls for men again
Like those who battled not in vain
For England's Charter, Alfred's law;
And right of speech and trial just
Wage in your name their ancient war
With venal courts and perjured trust.
God's ways seem dark, but, soon or late,
They touch the shining hills of day;
The evil cannot brook delay,
The good can well afford to wait.
Give ermined knaves their hour of crime;
Ye have the future grand and great,
The safe appeal of Truth to Time!
Scheme | ABBACADEFFEGCGHIIHJHJKLMKNONPQQPRPR |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Tetractys (20%) |
Metre | 01110111 11111101 11011111 11111101 1111101 11110101 1111111 01011111 11110101 11010011 1111011 11110101 11010101 11011101 01111111 11011101 11110101 110010101 11010111 01010111 01010111 01110101 11011101 11110101 1101011 01110101 10111101 11010101 11111111 11010111 01010101 01110111 11111011 11010101 01011111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,230 |
Words | 240 |
Sentences | 8 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 35 |
Lines Amount | 35 |
Letters per line (avg) | 28 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 977 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 238 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:12 min read
- 173 Views
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"For Righteousness' Sake" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 30 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/22897/for-righteousness%27-sake>.
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