Fragment
The hand of Fate cannot be stayed,The course of Fate cannot be steered,By all the gods that man has made,Nor all the devils he has feared,Not by the prayers that might be prayedIn all the temples he has reared.
See! In your very midst there dwellTen thousand thousand blacks, a wedgeForged in the furnaces of hell,And sharpened to a cruel edgeBy wrong and by injustice fell,And driven by hatred as a sledge.
A wedge so slender at the start--Just twenty slaves in shackles bound--And yet, which split the land apartWith shrieks of war and battle sound,Which pierced the nation's very heart,And still lies cankering in the wound.
Not all the glory of your pride,Preserved in story and in song,Can from the judging future hide,Through all the coming ages long,That though you bravely fought and died,You fought and died for what was wrong.
'Tis fixed--for them that violateThe eternal laws, naught shall availTill they their error expiate;Nor shall their unborn children failTo pay the full required weightInto God's great, unerring scale.
Think not repentance can redeem,That sin his wages can withdraw;No, think as well to change the schemeOf worlds that move in reverent awe;Forgiveness is an idle dream,God is not love, no, God is law.
Words in this poem
- stayed a.
- Staid; fixed; settled; sober; -- now written staid. See Staid.
- dwell v. i.
- To delay; to linger. [OE. dwellen, dwelien, to err, linger, AS. dwellan to deceive, hinder, delay, dwelian to err; akin to Icel. dvelja to delay, tarry, Sw. dväljas to dwell, Dan. dv]
- blacks n.
- The name of a kind of in used in copperplate printing, prepared from the charred husks of the grape, and residue of the wine press.
- bravely adv.
- In a brave manner; courageously; gallantly; valiantly; splendidly; nobly.
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- unborn a.
- Not born; no yet brought into life; being still to appear; future.
- unerring a.
- Committing no mistake; incapable or error or failure certain; sure; unfailing; as, the unerring wisdom of God.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Fragment 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, Fragment, in Fifty Years and Other Poems (1917), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17884, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/johnson-fifty-years/fragment.html, id L08295.
Form and metre
Fragment is 36 lines in 6 stanzas of 6 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABABAB. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.0 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 28% 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 ABABAB stayedA · steeredB · madeA · fearedB · prayedA · rearedB
- 2 ABABAB dwellA · wedgeB · hellA · edgeB · fellA · sledgeB
- 3 ABABAB startA · boundB · apartA · soundB · heartA · woundB
- 4 ABABAB prideA · songB · hideA · longB · diedA · wrongB
- 5 ABABAB violateA · availB · expiateA · failB · weightA · scaleB
- 6 ABABAB redeemA · withdrawB · schemeA · aweB · dreamA · lawB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| The hand of Fate cannot be stayed, | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| The course of Fate cannot be steered, | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| By all the gods that man has made, | 8 | ········ |
| Nor all the devils he has feared, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Not by the prayers that might be prayed | 8 | ········ |
| In all the temples he has reared. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| See! In your very midst there dwell | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Ten thousand thousand blacks, a wedge | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Forged in the furnaces of hell, | 8 | ···/˘˘·· |
| And sharpened to a cruel edge | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| By wrong and by injustice fell, | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| And driven by hatred as a sledge. | 8 | ·/·/˘··· |
| A wedge so slender at the start-- | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Just twenty slaves in shackles bound-- | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And yet, which split the land apart | 8 | ······˘/ |
| With shrieks of war and battle sound, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Which pierced the nation's very heart, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| And still lies cankering in the wound. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Not all the glory of your pride, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Preserved in story and in song, | 8 | ˘/·/˘··· |
| Can from the judging future hide, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Through all the coming ages long, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| That though you bravely fought and died, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| You fought and died for what was wrong. | 8 | ········ |
| 'Tis fixed--for them that violate | 8 | ·····/˘˘ |
| The eternal laws, naught shall avail | 9 | ·˘/˘···˘/ |
| Till they their error expiate; | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Nor shall their unborn children fail | 8 | ···///˘· |
| To pay the full required weight | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| Into God's great, unerring scale. | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| Think not repentance can redeem, | 8 | ··˘/˘·˘/ |
| That sin his wages can withdraw; | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| No, think as well to change the scheme | 8 | ········ |
| Of worlds that move in reverent awe; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Forgiveness is an idle dream, | 8 | ˘/˘··/˘· |
| God is not love, no, God is law. | 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.