Song of Slaves in the Desert
WHERE are we going? where are we going,Where are we going, Rubee?Lord of peoples, lord of lands,Look across these shining sands,Through the furnace of the noon,Through the white light of the moon.Strong the Ghiblee wind is blowing,Strange and large the world is growing!Speak and tell us where we are going,Where are we going, Rubee?
Bornou land was rich and good,Wells of water, fields of food,Dourra fields, and bloom of bean,And the palm-tree cool and greenBornou land we see no longer,Here we thirst and here we hunger,Here the Moor-man smites in angerWhere are we going, Rubee?
When we went from Bornou land,We were like the leaves and sand,We were many, we are few;Life has one, and death has twoWhitened bones our path are showing,Thou All-seeing, thou All-knowingHear us, tell us, where are we going,Where are we going, Rubee?
Moons of marches from our eyesBornou land behind us lies;Stranger round us day by dayBends the desert circle gray;Wild the waves of sand are flowing,Hot the winds above them blowing,--Lord of all things! where are we going?Where are we going, Rubee?
We are weak, but Thou art strong;Short our lives, but Thine is long;We are blind, but Thou hast eyes;We are fools, but Thou art wise!Thou, our morrow's pathway knowingThrough the strange world round us growing,Hear us, tell us where are we going,Where are we going, Rubee?
Words in this poem
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
- pathway n.
- A footpath; a beaten track; any path or course. Also used figuratively.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Song of Slaves in the Desert 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, Song of Slaves in the Desert, 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/song-of-slaves-in-the-desert.html, id L24876.
Form and metre
Song of Slaves in the Desert is 42 lines in 5 verse paragraphs. It is in rhyming couplets, 62% of the lines. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%).
See other poems in rhyming couplets, 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 ABCCDDAAAB goingA · rubeeB · landsC · sandsC · noonD · moonD · blowingA · growingA · goingA · rubeeB
- 2 --AA---- good · food · beanA · greenA · longer · hunger · anger · rubee
- 3 AABBCCC- landA · sandA · fewB · twoB · showingC · knowingC · goingC · rubee
- 4 AABBCCC- eyesA · liesA · dayB · grayB · flowingC · blowingC · goingC · rubee
- 5 AABBCCC- strongA · longA · eyesB · wiseB · knowingC · growingC · goingC · rubee
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 |
|---|---|---|
| WHERE are we going? where are we going, | 9 | ···/···/˘ |
| Where are we going, Rubee? | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| Lord of peoples, lord of lands, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Look across these shining sands, | 7 | ·˘/·/˘· |
| Through the furnace of the noon, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Through the white light of the moon. | 7 | ······· |
| Strong the Ghiblee wind is blowing, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Strange and large the world is growing! | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Speak and tell us where we are going, | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| Where are we going, Rubee? | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| Bornou land was rich and good, | 7 | ······· |
| Wells of water, fields of food, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Dourra fields, and bloom of bean, | 7 | ······· |
| And the palm-tree cool and green | 7 | ······· |
| Bornou land we see no longer, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Here we thirst and here we hunger, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Here the Moor-man smites in anger | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Where are we going, Rubee? | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| When we went from Bornou land, | 7 | ······· |
| We were like the leaves and sand, | 7 | ······· |
| We were many, we are few; | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Life has one, and death has two | 7 | ······· |
| Whitened bones our path are showing, | 9 | /˘·/˘··/˘ |
| Thou All-seeing, thou All-knowing | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| Hear us, tell us, where are we going, | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| Where are we going, Rubee? | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| Moons of marches from our eyes | 8 | ··/˘·/˘· |
| Bornou land behind us lies; | 7 | ······· |
| Stranger round us day by day | 7 | /˘····· |
| Bends the desert circle gray; | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| Wild the waves of sand are flowing, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Hot the winds above them blowing,-- | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Lord of all things! where are we going? | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| Where are we going, Rubee? | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| We are weak, but Thou art strong; | 7 | ······· |
| Short our lives, but Thine is long; | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| We are blind, but Thou hast eyes; | 7 | ······· |
| We are fools, but Thou art wise! | 7 | ······· |
| Thou, our morrow's pathway knowing | 9 | ·/˘/˘/·/˘ |
| Through the strange world round us growing, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Hear us, tell us where are we going, | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| Where are we going, Rubee? | 7 | ···/˘·· |
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.