An Appeal to My Countrywomen
But surely the mills of God's justiceWill grind out the grist of their fate.
Oh, people sin-laden and guilty,So lusty and proud in your prime,The sharp sickles of God's retributionWill gather your harvest of crime.
Weep not, oh my well-sheltered sisters,Weep not for the Negro alone,But weep for your sons who must gatherThe crops which their fathers have sown.
Go read on the tombstones of nationsOf chieftains who masterful trod,The sentence which time has engraven,That they had forgotten their God.
'Tis the judgment of God that men reapThe tares which in madness they sow,Sorrow follows the footsteps of crime,And Sin is the consort of Woe.
Words in this poem
- grist n.
- Ground corn; that which is ground at one time; as much grain as is carried to the mill at one time, or the meal it produces. [AS. grist, fr. grindan. See Grind.]
- masterful a.
- Inclined to play the master; domineering; imperious; arbitrary.
- reap n.
- A bundle of grain; a handful of grain laid down by the reaper as it is cut. Wright. [Cf. AS. rip harvest. See Reap, v.]
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-3.html, id L10618.
Form and metre
An Appeal to My Countrywomen is 18 lines in 5 stanzas. The metre is anapaestic common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 87% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.6 syllables. 6 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 28% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in anapaestic common measure.
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.
- 2 -A-A guilty · primeA · retribution · crimeA
- 3 -A-A sisters · aloneA · gather · sownA
- 4 -A-A nations · trodA · engraven · godA
- 5 -A-A reap · sowA · crime · woeA
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 common measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| But surely the mills of God's justice | 9 | ·/˘····/˘ |
| Will grind out the grist of their fate. | 8 | ········ |
| Oh, people sin-laden and guilty, | 9 | ·/˘·/˘·/˘ |
| So lusty and proud in your prime, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| The sharp sickles of God's retribution | 10 | ··/˘···˘/˘ |
| Will gather your harvest of crime. | 8 | ·/˘·/˘·· |
| Weep not, oh my well-sheltered sisters, | 9 | ·····/˘/˘ |
| Weep not for the Negro alone, | 8 | ····/˘˘/ |
| But weep for your sons who must gather | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| The crops which their fathers have sown. | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| Go read on the tombstones of nations | 9 | ····/··/˘ |
| Of chieftains who masterful trod, | 8 | ·/˘·/˘˘· |
| The sentence which time has engraven, | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| That they had forgotten their God. | 8 | ···˘/˘·· |
| 'Tis the judgment of God that men reap | 9 | ··/˘····· |
| The tares which in madness they sow, | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| Sorrow follows the footsteps of crime, | 9 | /˘/˘·/··· |
| And Sin is the consort of Woe. | 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.