Father, Father Abraham
Father, Father Abraham,To-day look on us from above;On us, the offspring of thy faith,The children of thy Christ-like love.
For that which we have humbly wrought,Give us to-day thy kindly smile;Wherein we've failed or fallen short,Bear with us, Father, yet awhile.
Father, Father Abraham,To-day we lift our hearts to thee,Filled with the thought of what great priceWas paid, that we might ransomed be.
To-day we consecrate ourselvesAnew in hand and heart and brain,To send this judgment down the years:The ransom was not paid in vain.
Words in this poem
- humbly adv.
- With humility; lowly.
- awhile adv.
- For a while; for some time; for a short time. [Adj. a + while time, interval.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Father, Father Abraham is in the public domain. This text is taken from Fifty Years, & Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #17884; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: James Weldon Johnson, Father, Father Abraham, in Fifty Years and Other Poems (1917), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17884, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/johnson-fifty-years/father-father-abraham.html, id L08293.
Form and metre
Father, Father Abraham is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.9 syllables. 12% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
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 abraham · aboveA · faith · loveA
- 2 -A-A wrought · smileA · short · awhileA
- 3 -A-A abraham · theeA · price · beA
- 4 -A-A ourselves · brainA · years · vainA
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 iambic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Father, Father Abraham, | 7 | /˘/˘/˘· |
| To-day look on us from above; | 8 | ········ |
| On us, the offspring of thy faith, | 8 | ···/···· |
| The children of thy Christ-like love. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| For that which we have humbly wrought, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Give us to-day thy kindly smile; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Wherein we've failed or fallen short, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Bear with us, Father, yet awhile. | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| Father, Father Abraham, | 7 | /˘/˘/˘· |
| To-day we lift our hearts to thee, | 8 | ····/··· |
| Filled with the thought of what great price | 8 | ········ |
| Was paid, that we might ransomed be. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| To-day we consecrate ourselves | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| Anew in hand and heart and brain, | 8 | ˘/······ |
| To send this judgment down the years: | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The ransom was not paid in vain. | 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.