The Emancipation Group
AMIDST thy sacred effigiesOf old renown give place,O city, Freedom-loved! to hisWhose hand unchained a race.
Take the worn frame, that rested notSave in a martyr's grave;The care-lined face, that none forgot,Bent to the kneeling slave.
Let man be free! The mighty wordHe spake was not his own;An impulse from the Highest stirredThese chiselled lips alone.
The cloudy sign, the fiery guide,Along his pathway ran,And Nature, through his voice, deniedThe ownership of man.
We rest in peace where these sad eyesSaw peril, strife, and pain;His was the nation's sacrifice,And ours the priceless gain.
O symbol of God's will on earthAs it is done above!Bear witness to the cost and worthOf justice and of love.
Stand in thy place and testifyTo coming ages long,That truth is stronger than a lie,And righteousness than wrong.
Words in this poem
- 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]
- pathway n.
- A footpath; a beaten track; any path or course. Also used figuratively.
- strife n.
- The act of striving; earnest endeavor. [OF. estrif. See Strive.]
- priceless a.
- Too valuable to admit of being appraised; of inestimable worth; invaluable.
- testify v. i.
- To make a solemn declaration, verbal or written, to establish some fact; to give testimony for the purpose of communicating to others a knowledge of something not known to them. [OF. testifier, L. testificari; testis a witness + -ficare (in comp.) to make. See -fy, and cf. Attest, Contest, Detest, Protest, Testament.]
- righteousness n.
- The quality or state of being righteous; holiness; purity; uprightness; rectitude. [AS. rihtwisnes.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Emancipation Group 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, The Emancipation Group, 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/the-emancipation-group.html, id L24931.
Form and metre
The Emancipation Group is 28 lines in 7 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 6 of its 7 stanzas. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%).
See other poems in common measure.
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 effigiesA · placeB · hisA · raceB
- 2 ABAB notA · graveB · forgotA · slaveB
- 3 ABAB wordA · ownB · stirredA · aloneB
- 4 ABAB guideA · ranB · deniedA · manB
- 5 -A-A eyes · painA · sacrifice · gainA
- 6 ABAB earthA · aboveB · worthA · loveB
- 7 ABAB testifyA · longB · lieA · wrongB
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 common measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| AMIDST thy sacred effigies | 8 | ˘/·/˘/˘˘ |
| Of old renown give place, | 6 | ··˘/·· |
| O city, Freedom-loved! to his | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Whose hand unchained a race. | 6 | ······ |
| Take the worn frame, that rested not | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Save in a martyr's grave; | 6 | ···/˘· |
| The care-lined face, that none forgot, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Bent to the kneeling slave. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Let man be free! The mighty word | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| He spake was not his own; | 6 | ······ |
| An impulse from the Highest stirred | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| These chiselled lips alone. | 6 | ·/˘·˘/ |
| The cloudy sign, the fiery guide, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Along his pathway ran, | 6 | ˘/·/·· |
| And Nature, through his voice, denied | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| The ownership of man. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| We rest in peace where these sad eyes | 8 | ········ |
| Saw peril, strife, and pain; | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| His was the nation's sacrifice, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| And ours the priceless gain. | 7 | ·/˘·/˘· |
| O symbol of God's will on earth | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| As it is done above! | 6 | ······ |
| Bear witness to the cost and worth | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Of justice and of love. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Stand in thy place and testify | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| To coming ages long, | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| That truth is stronger than a lie, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And righteousness than wrong. | 6 | ·/˘˘·· |
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.