Analysis of The Slave-Auction--A Fact
Why stands she near the auction stand,
That girl so young and fair;
What brings her to this dismal place,
Why stands she weeping there?
Why does she raise that bitter cry?
Why hangs her head with shame,
As now the auctioneer's rough voice,
So rudely calls her name?
But see! she grasps a manly hand,
And in a voice so low,
As scarcely to be heard, she says,
'My brother, must I go?'
A moment's pause: then midst a wail
Of agonizing woe,
His answer falls upon the ear,
'Yes, sister, you must go!'
'No longer can my arm defend,
No longer can I save
My sister from the horrid fate
That waits her as a SLAVE!'
Ah! now I know why she is there,
She came there to be sold!
That lovely form, that noble mind,
Must be exchanged for gold!
O God! my every heart-string cries,
Dost thou these scenes behold
In this our boasted Christian land,
And must the truth be told?
Blush, Christian, blush! for e'en the dark
Untutored heathen see
Thy inconsistency, and lo!
They scorn thy God, and thee!
Scheme | ABXB XCXC ADXD XDXD XEXE BFXF XFAF XGDG |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain |
Metre | 11110101 111101 11011101 111101 11111101 110111 110111 110101 11110101 000111 11011111 110111 01011101 110001 11010101 110111 11011101 110111 11010101 110101 11111111 111111 11011101 110111 111100111 111101 011010101 010111 110111101 1101 1010001 111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 957 |
Words | 191 |
Sentences | 16 |
Stanzas | 8 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 32 |
Letters per line (avg) | 23 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 93 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 23 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 19, 2023
- 57 sec read
- 85 Views
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"The Slave-Auction--A Fact" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/3511/the-slave-auction--a-fact>.
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