The Witnesses

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 1807 (Portland) – 1882 (Cambridge)



In Ocean's wide domains,
     Half buried in the sands,
   Lie skeletons in chains,
     With shackled feet and hands.
   Beyond the fall of dews,
     Deeper than plummet lies,
   Float ships, with all their crews,
     No more to sink nor rise.
   There the black Slave-ship swims,
    Freighted with human forms,
  Whose fettered, fleshless limbs
    Are not the sport of storms.
  These are the bones of Slaves;
    They gleam from the abyss;
  They cry, from yawning waves,
   "We are the Witnesses!"

  Within Earth's wide domains
    Are markets for men's lives;
  Their necks are galled with chains,
    Their wrists are cramped with gyves.

  Dead bodies, that the kite
    In deserts makes its prey;
  Murders, that with affright
    Scare school-boys from their play!

  All evil thoughts and deeds;
    Anger, and lust, and pride;
  The foulest, rankest weeds,
    That choke Life's groaning tide!

  These are the woes of Slaves;
    They glare from the abyss;
  They cry, from unknown graves,
   "We are the Witnesses!"

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

48 sec read
130

Quick analysis:

Scheme ababcdcdefefghgI axaa jkjk lmlm ghgI
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 1,006
Words 161
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 16, 4, 4, 4, 4

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was an American poet and educator whose works include "Paul Revere's Ride", The Song of Hiawatha, and Evangeline. more…

All Henry Wadsworth Longfellow poems | Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Books

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