Analysis of To George B. Cheever
John Greenleaf Whittier 1807 (Haverhill) – 1892 (Hampton Falls)
So spake Esaias: so, in words of flame,
Tekoa's prophet-herdsman smote with blame
The traffickers in men, and put to shame,
All earth and heaven before,
The sacerdotal robbers of the poor.
All the dread Scripture lives for thee again,
To smite like lightning on the hands profane
Lifted to bless the slave-whip and the chain.
Once more the old Hebrew tongue
Bends with the shafts of God a bow new-strung!
Take up the mantle which the prophets wore;
Warn with their warnings, show the Christ once more
Bound, scourged, and crucified in His blameless poor;
And shake above our land
The unquenched bolts that blazed in Hosea's hand!
Not vainly shalt thou cast upon our years
The solemn burdens of the Orient seers,
And smite with truth a guilty nation's ears.
Mightier was Luther's word
Than Seckingen's mailed arm or Hutton's sword!
Scheme | AAABC XDDEE BBCFF GXGXX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11110111 1101111 0100010111 1101001 0110101 1011011101 1111010101 1011011001 1101101 1101110111 1101010101 1111010111 1101001101 0101101 0111100101 11011101101 0101010101 0111010101 100111 11111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 819 |
Words | 145 |
Sentences | 7 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 5, 5, 5, 5 |
Lines Amount | 20 |
Letters per line (avg) | 33 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 165 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 36 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 45 sec read
- 51 Views
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"To George B. Cheever" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/23250/to-george-b.-cheever>.
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