Daniel Neall II
Such was our friend. Formed on the good old plan,A true and brave and downright honest manHe blew no trumpet in the market-place,Nor in the church with hypocritic faceSupplied with cant the lack of Christian grace;Loathing pretence, he did with cheerful willWhat others talked of while their hands were still;And, while "Lord, Lord!" the pious tyrants cried,Who, in the poor, their Master crucified,His daily prayer, far better understoodIn acts than words, was simply doing good.So calm, so constant was his rectitude,That by his loss alone we know its worth,And feel how true a man has walked with us on earth.
Words in this poem
- downright adv.
- Straight down; perpendicularly.
- pretence n.
- The act of laying claim; the claim laid; assumption; pretension. [LL. praetensus, for L. praetentus, p. p. of praetendere. See Pretend, and cf. Tension.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Daniel Neall II 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, Daniel Neall II, 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/daniel-neall-ii.html, id L24875.
Form and metre
Daniel Neall II is 14 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 57% of the lines: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%).
See other poems in heroic couplets, other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 AABBBCCDDEE-FF planA · manA · placeB · faceB · graceB · willC · stillC · criedD · crucifiedD · understoodE · goodE · rectitude · worthF · earthF
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Such was our friend. Formed on the good old plan, | 10 | ··/······· |
| A true and brave and downright honest man | 10 | ·····/·/˘· |
| He blew no trumpet in the market-place, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Nor in the church with hypocritic face | 10 | ·········· |
| Supplied with cant the lack of Christian grace; | 10 | ˘/·····/˘· |
| Loathing pretence, he did with cheerful will | 10 | /˘·····/˘· |
| What others talked of while their hands were still; | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| And, while "Lord, Lord!" the pious tyrants cried, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| Who, in the poor, their Master crucified, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| His daily prayer, far better understood | 10 | ·/˘··/˘·˘/ |
| In acts than words, was simply doing good. | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| So calm, so constant was his rectitude, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| That by his loss alone we know its worth, | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| And feel how true a man has walked with us on earth. | 12 | ············ |
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.