A Song for the Time
Written in the summer of 1856, during the political campaign of the FreeSoil party under the candidacy of John C. Fremont.
Up, laggards of Freedom!--our free flag is castTo the blaze of the sun and the wings of the blast;Will ye turn from a struggle so bravely begun,From a foe that is breaking, a field that's half won?
Whoso loves not his kind, and who fears not the Lord,Let him join that foe's service, accursed and abhorredLet him do his base will, as the slave only can,--Let him put on the bloodhound, and put off the Man!
Let him go where the cold blood that creeps in his veinsShall stiffen the slave-whip, and rust on his chains;Where the black slave shall laugh in his bonds, to beholdThe White Slave beside him, self-fettered and sold!
But ye, who still boast of hearts beating and warm,Rise, from lake shore and ocean's, like waves in a storm,Come, throng round our banner in Liberty's name,Like winds from your mountains, like prairies aflame!
Our foe, hidden long in his ambush of night,Now, forced from his covert, stands black in the light.Oh, the cruel to Man, and the hateful to God,Smite him down to the earth, that is cursed where he trod!
For deeper than thunder of summer's loud shower,On the dome of the sky God is striking the hour!Shall we falter before what we've prayed for so long,When the Wrong is so weak, and the Right is so strong?
Come forth all together! come old and come young,Freedom's vote in each hand, and her song on each tongue;Truth naked is stronger than Falsehood in mail;The Wrong cannot prosper, the Right cannot fail.
Like leaves of the summer once numbered the foe,But the hoar-frost is falling, the northern winds blow;Like leaves of November erelong shall they fall,For earth wearies of them, and God's over all!
Words in this poem
- campaign n.
- An open field; a large, open plain without considerable hills. [F. campagne, It. campagna, fr. L. Campania the level country about Naples, fr. campus field. See Camp, and cf. Champaign, Champagne.]
- candidacy n.
- The position of a candidate; state of being a candidate; candidateship.
- bravely adv.
- In a brave manner; courageously; gallantly; valiantly; splendidly; nobly.
- whoso pron.
- Whosoever. Piers Plowman.
- 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,]
- fettered a.
- Seeming as if fettered, as the feet pf certain animals which bend backward, and appear unfit for walking.
- aflame adv.
- Inflames; glowing with light or passion; ablaze. G. Eliot. [Pref. a- + flame.]
- hateful a.
- Manifesting hate or hatred; malignant; malevolent.
- cursed a.
- Deserving a curse; execrable; hateful; detestable; abominable.
- falter v. t.
- To thrash in the chaff; also, to cleanse or sift, as barley.
- prosper v. t.
- To favor; to render successful. [F. prospérer v. i., or L. prosperare, v. i., or L. prosperare, v. t., fr. prosper or prosperus. See Prosperous.]
- hoar v. t.
- To become moldy or musty. [AS. harian to grow gray.]
- erelong adv.
- Before the ere long.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Song for the Time is in the public domain. This text is taken from Anti-Slavery Poems and Songs of Labor and Reform, Complete Volume III of The Works of John Greenleaf Whittier, Project Gutenberg ebook #9580; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: John Greenleaf Whittier, A Song for the Time, in Anti-Slavery Poems and Songs of Labor and Reform (1865), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9580, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/whittier-anti-slavery/a-song-for-the-time.html, id L24901.
Form and metre
A Song for the Time is 34 lines in 9 stanzas. The rhyme scheme is AABB, complete in 8 of its 9 stanzas. The metre is anapaestic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%).
See other poems in anapaestic 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.
- 2 AABB castA · blastA · begunB · wonB
- 3 AABB lordA · abhorredA · canB · manB
- 4 AABB veinsA · chainsA · beholdB · soldB
- 5 AABB warmA · stormA · nameB · aflameB
- 6 AABB nightA · lightA · godB · trodB
- 7 AABB showerA · hourA · longB · strongB
- 8 AABB youngA · tongueA · mailB · failB
- 9 AABB foeA · blowA · fallB · allB
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Written in the summer of 1856, during the political campaign of the Free | 18 | /˘··/˘·/˘·˘/˘˘/··· |
| Soil party under the candidacy of John C. Fremont. | 13 | ·/˘···/˘···/˘ |
| Up, laggards of Freedom!--our free flag is cast | 12 | ·/˘·/˘/˘···· |
| To the blaze of the sun and the wings of the blast; | 12 | ············ |
| Will ye turn from a struggle so bravely begun, | 12 | ·····/˘·/˘˘/ |
| From a foe that is breaking, a field that's half won? | 12 | ·····/˘····· |
| Whoso loves not his kind, and who fears not the Lord, | 12 | /˘·········· |
| Let him join that foe's service, accursed and abhorred | 12 | ·····/˘···˘/ |
| Let him do his base will, as the slave only can,-- | 12 | ·········/˘· |
| Let him put on the bloodhound, and put off the Man! | 12 | ·····/˘····· |
| Let him go where the cold blood that creeps in his veins | 12 | ············ |
| Shall stiffen the slave-whip, and rust on his chains; | 11 | ·/˘········ |
| Where the black slave shall laugh in his bonds, to behold | 12 | ··········˘/ |
| The White Slave beside him, self-fettered and sold! | 12 | ···˘/··/˘˘·· |
| But ye, who still boast of hearts beating and warm, | 11 | ·······/˘·· |
| Rise, from lake shore and ocean's, like waves in a storm, | 12 | ·····/˘····· |
| Come, throng round our banner in Liberty's name, | 12 | ···/˘/˘·/˘˘· |
| Like winds from your mountains, like prairies aflame! | 11 | ····/˘·/˘˘/ |
| Our foe, hidden long in his ambush of night, | 12 | /˘·/˘···/··· |
| Now, forced from his covert, stands black in the light. | 12 | ··˘··/˘····· |
| Oh, the cruel to Man, and the hateful to God, | 12 | ··/˘····/˘·· |
| Smite him down to the earth, that is cursed where he trod! | 12 | ············ |
| For deeper than thunder of summer's loud shower, | 12 | ·/˘·/˘·/˘·/˘ |
| On the dome of the sky God is striking the hour! | 13 | ········/˘·/˘ |
| Shall we falter before what we've prayed for so long, | 12 | ··/˘········ |
| When the Wrong is so weak, and the Right is so strong? | 12 | ············ |
| Come forth all together! come old and come young, | 11 | ···˘/˘····· |
| Freedom's vote in each hand, and her song on each tongue; | 12 | /˘·········· |
| Truth naked is stronger than Falsehood in mail; | 12 | ·/˘˘·/˘·/··· |
| The Wrong cannot prosper, the Right cannot fail. | 11 | ··/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Like leaves of the summer once numbered the foe, | 12 | ····/˘·/˘˘·· |
| But the hoar-frost is falling, the northern winds blow; | 12 | ·····/˘·/˘·· |
| Like leaves of November erelong shall they fall, | 12 | ···˘/˘······ |
| For earth wearies of them, and God's over all! | 11 | ··/˘······· |
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.