Fourth of July Ode
Our fathers fought for Liberty,They struggled long and well,History of their deeds can tell--But did they leave us free?
Are we free from vanity,Free from pride, and free from self,Free from love of power and pelf,From everything that's beggarly?
Are we free from stubborn will,From low hate and malice small,From opinion's tyrant thrall?Are none of us our own slaves still?
Are we free to speak our thought,To be happy, and be poor,Free to enter Heaven's door,To live and labor as we ought?
Are we then made free at lastFrom the fear of what men say,Free to reverence To-day,Free from the slavery of the Past?
Our fathers fought for liberty,They struggled long and well,History of their deeds can tell--But ourselves must set us free.
Words in this poem
- pelf n.
- Money; riches; lucre; gain; -- generally conveying the idea of something ill-gotten or worthless. It has no plural. [OE. pelfir booty, OF. pelfre, akin to pelfrer to plunder, and perh. to E. pillage. Cf. Pilfer.]
- beggarly a.
- In the condition of, or like, a beggar; suitable for a beggar; extremely indigent; poverty-stricken; mean; poor; contemptible.
- ought p. p.
- Was or were under obligation to pay; owed. [Orig. the preterit of the verb to owe. OE. oughte, aughte, ahte, AS. ahte. sq. root110. See Owe.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Fourth of July Ode is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems of James Russell Lowell With biographical sketch by Nathan Haskell Dole, Project Gutenberg ebook #38520; 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 Russell Lowell, Fourth of July Ode, in Poems (1844–1888), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #38520, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/lowell-james-russell-poems/fourth-of-july-ode.html, id L13638.
Form and metre
Fourth of July Ode is 24 lines in 6 stanzas of 4 lines each. The commonest rhyme scheme is ABBA, in 2 of the 6 stanzas; the rest vary or could not be confirmed. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 80%). 90% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.5 syllables. 4 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
See other poems in trochaic 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 -AA- liberty · wellA · tellA · free
- 2 -AA- vanity · selfA · pelfA · beggarly
- 3 ABBA willA · smallB · thrallB · stillA
- 4 A--A thoughtA · poor · door · oughtA
- 5 ABBA lastA · sayB · dayB · pastA
- 6 -AA- liberty · wellA · tellA · free
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 trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Our fathers fought for Liberty, | 9 | /˘/˘··/˘˘ |
| They struggled long and well, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| History of their deeds can tell-- | 8 | /˘˘····· |
| But did they leave us free? | 6 | ······ |
| Are we free from vanity, | 7 | ····/˘˘ |
| Free from pride, and free from self, | 7 | ······· |
| Free from love of power and pelf, | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| From everything that's beggarly? | 8 | ·/˘··/˘˘ |
| Are we free from stubborn will, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| From low hate and malice small, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| From opinion's tyrant thrall? | 7 | ·˘/˘/˘· |
| Are none of us our own slaves still? | 9 | ····/˘··· |
| Are we free to speak our thought, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| To be happy, and be poor, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Free to enter Heaven's door, | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| To live and labor as we ought? | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Are we then made free at last | 7 | ······· |
| From the fear of what men say, | 7 | ······· |
| Free to reverence To-day, | 7 | ··/˘˘·· |
| Free from the slavery of the Past? | 9 | ···/˘˘··· |
| Our fathers fought for liberty, | 9 | /˘/˘··/˘˘ |
| They struggled long and well, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| History of their deeds can tell-- | 8 | /˘˘····· |
| But ourselves must set us free. | 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.