Astraea

John Greenleaf Whittier 1807 (Haverhill) – 1892 (Hampton Falls)



'Jove means to settle
Astraea in her seat again,
And let down his golden chain
An age of better metal.'

Ben Johnson 1615

O POET rare and old!
Thy words are prophecies;
Forward the age of gold,
The new Saturnian lies.

The universal prayer
And hope are not in vain;
Rise, brothers! and prepare
The way for Saturn's reign.

Perish shall all which takes
From labor's board and can;
Perish shall all which makes
A spaniel of the man!

Free from its bonds the mind,
The body from the rod;
Broken all chains that bind
The image of our God.

Just men no longer pine
Behind their prison-bars;
Through the rent dungeon shine
The free sun and the stars.

Earth own, at last, untrod
By sect, or caste, or clan,
The fatherhood of God,
The brotherhood of man!

Fraud fail, craft perish, forth
The money-changers driven,
And God's will done on earth,
As now in heaven;

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

48 sec read
83

Quick analysis:

Scheme AXBA C DXDX EBEB FGFG HIHI JKJK DGIG XCXC
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 824
Words 159
Stanzas 9
Stanza Lengths 4, 1, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4

John Greenleaf Whittier

John Greenleaf Whittier was an influential American Quaker poet and ardent advocate of the abolition of slavery in the United States. more…

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    "Astraea" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Mar. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/22848/astraea>.

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