Calef in Boston
IN the solemn days of old,Two men met in Boston town,One a tradesman frank and bold,One a preacher of renown.
Cried the last, in bitter tone:"Poisoner of the wells of truthSatan's hireling, thou hast sownWith his tares the heart of youth!"
Spake the simple tradesman then,"God be judge 'twixt thee and me;All thou knowed of truth hath beenOnce a lie to men like thee.
"Falsehoods which we spurn to-dayWere the truths of long ago;Let the dead boughs fall away,Fresher shall the living grow.
"God is good and God is light,In this faith I rest secure;Evil can but serve the right,Over all shall love endure.
"Of your spectral puppet playI have traced the cunning wires;Come what will, I needs must say,God is true, and ye are liars."
When the thought of man is free,Error fears its lightest tones;So the priest cried, "Sadducee!"And the people took up stones.
In the ancient burying-ground,Side by side the twain now lie;One with humble grassy mound,One with marbles pale and high.
But the Lord hath blest the seedWhich that tradesman scattered then,And the preacher's spectral creedChills no more the blood of men.
Let us trust, to one is knownPerfect love which casts out fear,While the other's joys atoneFor the wrong he suffered here.
Words in this poem
- tradesman n.
- One who trades; a shopkeeper.
- poisoner n.
- One who poisons.
- hireling n.
- One who is hired, or who serves for wages; esp., one whose motive and interest in serving another are wholly gainful; a mercenary. [AS. h. See Hire, n., and -ling.]
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
- spurn v. t.
- To drive back or away, as with the foot; to kick. [OE. spurnen to kick against, to stumble over, AS. spurnan to kick, offend; akin to spura spur, OS. & OHG. spurnan to kick, Icel. spyrna, L. spernere to despise,]
- 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,]
- needs adv.
- Of necessity; necessarily; indispensably; -- often with must, and equivalent to of need. [Orig. gen. of need, used as an adverb. Cf. - wards.]
- sadducee n.
- One of a sect among the ancient Jews, who denied the resurrection, a future state, and the existence of angels. [L. Sadducaei, p., Gr. Tsaddukim; -- so called from Tsadok, the founder of the sect.]
- twain a.
- Two;- nearly obsolete in common discourse, but used in poetry and burlesque. [OE. twein, tweien, tweyne, AS. twegen, masc. See Two.]
- atone v. t.
- To set at one; to reduce to concord; to reconcile, as parties at variance; to appease.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Calef in Boston 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, Calef in Boston, 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/calef-in-boston.html, id L24953.
Form and metre
Calef in Boston is 40 lines in 10 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 9 of its 10 stanzas. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%).
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 ABAB oldA · townB · boldA · renownB
- 2 ABAB toneA · truthB · sownA · youthB
- 3 -A-A then · meA · been · theeA
- 4 ABAB dayA · agoB · awayA · growB
- 5 ABAB lightA · secureB · rightA · endureB
- 6 ABAB playA · wiresB · sayA · liarsB
- 7 ABAB freeA · tonesB · sadduceeA · stonesB
- 8 ABAB groundA · lieB · moundA · highB
- 9 ABAB seedA · thenB · creedA · menB
- 10 ABAB knownA · fearB · atoneA · hereB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| IN the solemn days of old, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Two men met in Boston town, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| One a tradesman frank and bold, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| One a preacher of renown. | 7 | ··/˘·˘/ |
| Cried the last, in bitter tone: | 7 | ····/˘· |
| "Poisoner of the wells of truth | 8 | /˘˘····· |
| Satan's hireling, thou hast sown | 7 | /˘/˘··· |
| With his tares the heart of youth!" | 7 | ······· |
| Spake the simple tradesman then, | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| "God be judge 'twixt thee and me; | 7 | ······· |
| All thou knowed of truth hath been | 8 | ···˘···· |
| Once a lie to men like thee. | 7 | ······· |
| "Falsehoods which we spurn to-day | 7 | /······ |
| Were the truths of long ago; | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| Let the dead boughs fall away, | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| Fresher shall the living grow. | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| "God is good and God is light, | 7 | ······· |
| In this faith I rest secure; | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| Evil can but serve the right, | 7 | /˘····· |
| Over all shall love endure. | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| "Of your spectral puppet play | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| I have traced the cunning wires; | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| Come what will, I needs must say, | 7 | ······· |
| God is true, and ye are liars." | 8 | ······/˘ |
| When the thought of man is free, | 7 | ······· |
| Error fears its lightest tones; | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| So the priest cried, "Sadducee!" | 7 | ····/˘˘ |
| And the people took up stones. | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| In the ancient burying-ground, | 8 | ··/˘/˘˘· |
| Side by side the twain now lie; | 7 | ······· |
| One with humble grassy mound, | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| One with marbles pale and high. | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| But the Lord hath blest the seed | 7 | ······· |
| Which that tradesman scattered then, | 8 | ··/˘/˘˘· |
| And the preacher's spectral creed | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| Chills no more the blood of men. | 7 | ······· |
| Let us trust, to one is known | 7 | ······· |
| Perfect love which casts out fear, | 7 | ˘/····· |
| While the other's joys atone | 7 | ··/˘·˘/ |
| For the wrong he suffered here. | 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.