Songs of Labor
I WOULD the gift I offer hereMight graces from thy favor take,And, seen through Friendship's atmosphere,On softened lines and coloring, wearThe unaccustomed light of beauty, for thy sake.
Few leaves of Fancy's spring remainBut what I have I give to thee,The o'er-sunned bloom of summer's plain,And paler flowers, the latter rainCalls from the westering slope of life's autumnal lea.
Above the fallen groves of green,Where youth's enchanted forest stood,Dry root and mossed trunk between,A sober after-growth is seen,As springs the pine where falls the gay-leafed maple wood!
Yet birds will sing, and breezes playTheir leaf-harps in the sombre tree;And through the bleak and wintry dayIt keeps its steady green alway,--So, even my after-thoughts may have a charm for thee.
Art's perfect forms no moral need,And beauty is its own excuse;But for the dull and flowerless weedSome healing virtue still must plead,And the rough ore must find its honors in its use.
So haply these, my simple laysOf homely toil, may serve to showThe orchard bloom and tasselled maizeThat skirt and gladden duty's ways,The unsung beauty hid life's common things below.
Haply from them the toiler, bentAbove his forge or plough, may gain,A manlier spirit of content,And feel that life is wisest spentWhere the strong working hand makes strong theworking brain.
The doom which to the guilty pairWithout the walls of Eden came,Transforming sinless ease to careAnd rugged toil, no more shall bearThe burden of old crime, or mark of primal shame.
A blessing now, a curse no more;Since He, whose name we breathe with awe,The coarse mechanic vesture wore,A poor man toiling with the poor,In labor, as in prayer, fulfilling the same law.
Words in this poem
- westering a.
- Passing to the west.
- enchanted a.
- Under the power of enchantment; possessed or exercised by enchanters; as, an enchanted castle.
- sombre n.
- Gloom; obscurity; duskiness; somberness.
- wintry a.
- Suitable to winter; resembling winter, or what belongs to winter; brumal; hyemal; cold; stormy; wintery. [AS. wintrig.]
- haply adv.
- By hap, chance, luck, or accident; perhaps; it may be.
- homely a.
- Belonging to, or having the characteristics of, home; domestic; familiar; intimate. [From Home, n.]
- gladden v. t.
- To make glad; to cheer; to please; to gratify; to rejoice; to exhilarate. [See Glad, v. t.]
- toiler n.
- One who toils, or labors painfully.
- eden n.
- The garden where Adam and Eve first dwelt; hence, a delightful region or residence. [Heb. eden delight, pleasure; also, a place of pleasure, Eden.]
- sinless a.
- Free from sin. 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,]
- primal a.
- First; primary; original; chief. [LL. primalis, fr. L. primus the first. See Prime, a.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Songs of Labor 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, Songs of Labor, 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/songs-of-labor.html, id L26157.
Form and metre
Songs of Labor is 46 lines in 9 stanzas. The rhyme scheme is ABAAB, complete in 6 of its 9 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%).
See 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 ABAAB hereA · takeB · atmosphereA · wearA · sakeB
- 2 ABAAB remainA · theeB · plainA · rainA · leaB
- 3 ABAAB greenA · stoodB · betweenA · seenA · woodB
- 4 ABA-B playA · treeB · dayA · alway · theeB
- 5 ABAAB needA · excuseB · weedA · pleadA · useB
- 6 ABAAB laysA · showB · maizeA · waysA · belowB
- 7 ABAA-B bentA · gainB · contentA · spentA · the · brainB
- 8 ABAAB pairA · cameB · careA · bearA · shameB
- 9 ABA-B moreA · aweB · woreA · poor · lawB
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 WOULD the gift I offer here | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Might graces from thy favor take, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And, seen through Friendship's atmosphere, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| On softened lines and coloring, wear | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| The unaccustomed light of beauty, for thy sake. | 12 | ··˘/˘··/˘··· |
| Few leaves of Fancy's spring remain | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| But what I have I give to thee, | 8 | ········ |
| The o'er-sunned bloom of summer's plain, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And paler flowers, the latter rain | 8 | ···/·/˘· |
| Calls from the westering slope of life's autumnal lea. | 12 | ···/˘···˘/˘· |
| Above the fallen groves of green, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Where youth's enchanted forest stood, | 8 | ··˘/˘/˘· |
| Dry root and mossed trunk between, | 8 | ····˘··· |
| A sober after-growth is seen, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| As springs the pine where falls the gay-leafed maple wood! | 12 | ·········/˘· |
| Yet birds will sing, and breezes play | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Their leaf-harps in the sombre tree; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And through the bleak and wintry day | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| It keeps its steady green alway,-- | 8 | ···/˘·/˘ |
| So, even my after-thoughts may have a charm for thee. | 12 | ·/·········· |
| Art's perfect forms no moral need, | 8 | ·/···/˘· |
| And beauty is its own excuse; | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| But for the dull and flowerless weed | 9 | ·····/˘˘· |
| Some healing virtue still must plead, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| And the rough ore must find its honors in its use. | 12 | ·······/˘··· |
| So haply these, my simple lays | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Of homely toil, may serve to show | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| The orchard bloom and tasselled maize | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| That skirt and gladden duty's ways, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| The unsung beauty hid life's common things below. | 12 | ·˘//˘··/˘··· |
| Haply from them the toiler, bent | 8 | /˘···/˘· |
| Above his forge or plough, may gain, | 8 | ········ |
| A manlier spirit of content, | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| And feel that life is wisest spent | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Where the strong working hand makes strong the | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| working brain. | 3 | /˘· |
| The doom which to the guilty pair | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Without the walls of Eden came, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Transforming sinless ease to care | 8 | ˘/˘/˘··· |
| And rugged toil, no more shall bear | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| The burden of old crime, or mark of primal shame. | 12 | ·/˘······/˘· |
| A blessing now, a curse no more; | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Since He, whose name we breathe with awe, | 8 | ········ |
| The coarse mechanic vesture wore, | 8 | ··˘/˘/˘· |
| A poor man toiling with the poor, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| In labor, as in prayer, fulfilling the same law. | 12 | ·/˘···˘/˘··· |
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