An Appeal to My Countrywomen
You can sigh o'er the sad-eyed ArmenianWho weeps in her desolate home.You can mourn o'er the exile of RussiaFrom kindred and friends doomed to roam.
You can pity the men who have wovenFrom passion and appetite chainsTo coil with a terrible tensionAround their heartstrings and brains.
You can sorrow o'er little childrenDisinherited from their birth,The wee waifs and toddlers neglected,Robbed of sunshine, music and mirth.
For beasts you have gentle compassion;Your mercy and pity they share.For the wretched, outcast and fallenYou have tenderness, love and care.
Words in this poem
- sunshine n.
- The light of the sun, or the place where it shines; the direct rays of the sun, the place where they fall, or the warmth and light which they give.
- outcast a.
- Cast out; degraded. [Cf. Sw. utkasta to cast out.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
An Appeal to My Countrywomen is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #679; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, An Appeal to My Countrywomen, in Poems (1854–1871), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #679, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/harper-poems/an-appeal-to-my-countrywomen-2.html, id L10616.
Form and metre
An Appeal to My Countrywomen is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is anapaestic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%). 78% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.6 syllables. 8 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 44% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in anapaestic trimeter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 -A-A armenian · homeA · russia · roamA
- 2 -A-A woven · chainsA · tension · brainsA
- 3 -A-A children · birthA · neglected · mirthA
- 4 -A-A compassion · shareA · fallen · careA
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against anapaestic trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| You can sigh o'er the sad-eyed Armenian | 10 | ·······˘/˘ |
| Who weeps in her desolate home. | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| You can mourn o'er the exile of Russia | 10 | ·····/··/˘ |
| From kindred and friends doomed to roam. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| You can pity the men who have woven | 10 | ··/˘····/˘ |
| From passion and appetite chains | 8 | ·/˘·/˘·· |
| To coil with a terrible tension | 9 | ····/˘˘/˘ |
| Around their heartstrings and brains. | 7 | ······· |
| You can sorrow o'er little children | 9 | ··/˘·/˘/˘ |
| Disinherited from their birth, | 8 | ········ |
| The wee waifs and toddlers neglected, | 9 | ····/˘˘/˘ |
| Robbed of sunshine, music and mirth. | 8 | ··/·/˘·· |
| For beasts you have gentle compassion; | 9 | ····/˘˘/˘ |
| Your mercy and pity they share. | 8 | ·/˘·/˘·· |
| For the wretched, outcast and fallen | 9 | ··/˘/··/˘ |
| You have tenderness, love and care. | 8 | ··/˘˘··· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.