Analysis of To Massachusetts
John Greenleaf Whittier 1807 (Haverhill) – 1892 (Hampton Falls)
WHAT though around thee blazes
No fiery rallying sign?
From all thy own high places,
Give heaven the light of thine!
What though unthrilled, unmoving,
The statesman stand apart,
And comes no warm approving
From Mammon's crowded mart?
Still, let the land be shaken
By a summons of thine own!
By all save truth forsaken,
Stand fast with that alone!
Shrink not from strife unequal!
With the best is always hope;
And ever in the sequel
God holds the right side up!
But when, with thine uniting,
Come voices long and loud,
And far-off hills are writing
Thy fire-words on the cloud;
When from Penobscot's fountains
A deep response is heard,
And across the Western mountains
Rolls back thy rallying word;
Shall thy line of battle falter,
With its allies just in view?
Oh, by hearth and holy altar,
My fatherland, be true!
Fling abroad thy scrolls of freedom!
Speed them onward far and fast!
Over hill and valley speed them,
Like the sibyl's on the blast!
Lo! The Empire State is shaking
The shackles from her hand;
With the rugged North is waking
The level sunset land!
On they come, the free battalions!
East and West and North they come,
And the heart-beat of the millions
Is the beat of Freedom's drum.
'To the tyrant's plot no favor!
No heed to place-fed knaves!
Bar and bolt the door forever
Against the land of slaves!'
Hear it, mother Earth, and hear it,
The heavens above us spread!
The land is roused, — its spirit
Was sleeping, but not dead!
Scheme | ABCBDEDEFGFGHIHJDKDKLMLMNONOPQRQDSDSLPLPNTNTUVWV |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1101110 11001001 1111110 1100111 1111 010101 0111010 11101 1101110 1010111 1111010 111101 1111010 101111 0100010 110111 1111010 110101 0111110 1101101 11110 010111 00101010 1111001 11111010 1110101 11101010 11011 10111110 1110101 10101011 101101 101001110 010101 10101110 01011 11101010 1010111 00111010 1011101 1011110 111111 10101010 010111 11101011 0100111 0111110 110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,407 |
Words | 262 |
Sentences | 22 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 48 |
Lines Amount | 48 |
Letters per line (avg) | 23 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 1,127 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 259 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:19 min read
- 128 Views
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"To Massachusetts" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/23255/to-massachusetts>.
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