Arisen at Last
I SAID I stood upon thy grave,My Mother State, when last the moonOf blossoms clomb the skies of June.
And, scattering ashes on my head,I wore, undreaming of relief,The sackcloth of thy shame and grief.
Again that moon of blossoms shinesOn leaf and flower and folded wing,And thou hast risen with the spring!
Once more thy strong maternal armsAre round about thy children flung,--A lioness that guards her young!
No threat is on thy closed lips,But in thine eye a power to smiteThe mad wolf backward from its light.
Southward the baffled robber's trackHenceforth runs only; hereaway,The fell lycanthrope finds no prey.
Henceforth, within thy sacred gates,His first low howl shall downward drawThe thunder of thy righteous law.
Not mindless of thy trade and gain,But, acting on the wiser plan,Thou'rt grown conservative of man.
So shalt thou clothe with life the hope,Dream-painted on the sightless eyesOf him who sang of Paradise,--
The vision of a Christian man,In virtue, as in stature greatEmbodied in a Christian State.
And thou, amidst thy sisterhoodForbearing long, yet standing fast,Shalt win their grateful thanks at last;
When North and South shall strive no more,And all their feuds and fears be lostIn Freedom's holy Pentecost.
Words in this poem
- sackcloth n.
- Linen or cotton cloth such a sacks are made of; coarse cloth; anciently, a cloth or garment worn in mourning, distress, mortification, or penitence.
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
- maternal a.
- Of or pertaining to a mother; becoming to a mother; motherly; as, maternal love; maternal tenderness. [F. maternel, L. maternus, fr. mater mother. See Mother.]
- henceforth adv.
- From this time forward; henceforward.
- lycanthrope n.
- A human being fabled to have been changed into a wolf; a werewolf.
- 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,]
- mindless a.
- Not indued with mind or intellectual powers; stupid; unthinking.
- shalt
- 2d per. sing. of Shall.
- sightless a.
- Wanting sight; without sight; blind.
- amidst prep.
- In the midst or middle of; surrounded or encompassed by; among. [OE. amidde, amiddes, on midden, AS. on middan, in the middle, fr. midde the middle. The s is an adverbial ending, originally marking the genitive; the t is a la]
- sisterhood n.
- The state or relation of being a sister; the office or duty of a sister. [Sister + hood.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Arisen at Last 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, Arisen at Last, 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/arisen-at-last.html, id L24892.
Form and metre
Arisen at Last is 36 lines in 12 stanzas of 3 lines each. It is in rhyming couplets, 61% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%).
See other poems in octosyllabic couplets, 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 -AA grave · moonA · juneA
- 2 -AA head · reliefA · griefA
- 3 -AA shines · wingA · springA
- 4 -AA arms · flungA · youngA
- 5 -AA lips · smiteA · lightA
- 6 -AA track · hereawayA · preyA
- 7 -AA gates · drawA · lawA
- 8 -AA gain · planA · manA
- 10 -AA man · greatA · stateA
- 11 -AA sisterhood · fastA · lastA
- 12 -AA more · lostA · pentecostA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I SAID I stood upon thy grave, | 8 | ········ |
| My Mother State, when last the moon | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Of blossoms clomb the skies of June. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| And, scattering ashes on my head, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| I wore, undreaming of relief, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| The sackcloth of thy shame and grief. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Again that moon of blossoms shines | 8 | ˘/···/˘· |
| On leaf and flower and folded wing, | 8 | ···/·/˘· |
| And thou hast risen with the spring! | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Once more thy strong maternal arms | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| Are round about thy children flung,-- | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| A lioness that guards her young! | 8 | ·/˘˘···· |
| No threat is on thy closed lips, | 8 | ······˘· |
| But in thine eye a power to smite | 8 | ·····/·· |
| The mad wolf backward from its light. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Southward the baffled robber's track | 8 | /˘·/˘/˘· |
| Henceforth runs only; hereaway, | 8 | //·/˘··· |
| The fell lycanthrope finds no prey. | 8 | ··/˘˘··· |
| Henceforth, within thy sacred gates, | 8 | //···/˘· |
| His first low howl shall downward draw | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The thunder of thy righteous law. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Not mindless of thy trade and gain, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| But, acting on the wiser plan, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Thou'rt grown conservative of man. | 8 | ··˘/˘˘·· |
| So shalt thou clothe with life the hope, | 8 | ········ |
| Dream-painted on the sightless eyes | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Of him who sang of Paradise,-- | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The vision of a Christian man, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| In virtue, as in stature great | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Embodied in a Christian State. | 8 | ˘/˘··/˘· |
| And thou, amidst thy sisterhood | 8 | ··˘/·/˘˘ |
| Forbearing long, yet standing fast, | 8 | ˘/˘··/˘· |
| Shalt win their grateful thanks at last; | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| When North and South shall strive no more, | 8 | ········ |
| And all their feuds and fears be lost | 8 | ········ |
| In Freedom's holy Pentecost. | 8 | ·/˘/˘/˘· |
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