The Jubilee Singers
VOICE of a people suffering long,The pathos of their mournful song,The sorrow of their night of wrong!
Their cry like that which Israel gave,A prayer for one to guide and save,Like Moses by the Red Sea's wave!
The stern accord her timbrel lentTo Miriam's note of triumph sentO'er Egypt's sunken armament!
The tramp that startled camp and town,And shook the walls of slavery down,The spectral march of old John Brown!
The storm that swept through battle-days,The triumph after long delays,The bondmen giving God the praise!
Voice of a ransomed race, sing onTill Freedom's every right is won,And slavery's every wrong undone
Words in this poem
- timbrel n.
- A kind of drum, tabor, or tabret, in use from the highest antiquity. [Dim. of OE. timbre, OF. timbre; probably fr. L. typmanum, Gr. tabl a drum; cf. Per. tambal a drum. See Tympanum, and cf. 2d Timbre, Tymbal.]
- armament n.
- A body of forces equipped for war; -- used of a land or naval force. [L. armamenta, pl., utensils, esp. the tackle of a ship, fr. armare to arm: cf. LL. armamentum, F. armement.]
- shook v. t.
- To pack, as staves, in a shook.
- undone a.
- Not done or performed; neglected. [Pref. un- not + done.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Jubilee Singers 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 Jubilee Singers, 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-jubilee-singers.html, id L24932.
Form and metre
The Jubilee Singers is 18 lines in 6 stanzas of 3 lines each. It is in rhyming couplets, 67% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%).
See other poems in octosyllabic couplets, 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 AAA longA · songA · wrongA
- 2 AAA gaveA · saveA · waveA
- 3 AAA lentA · sentA · armamentA
- 4 AAA townA · downA · brownA
- 5 AAA daysA · delaysA · praiseA
- 6 AAA onA · wonA · undoneA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| VOICE of a people suffering long, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| The pathos of their mournful song, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| The sorrow of their night of wrong! | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Their cry like that which Israel gave, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| A prayer for one to guide and save, | 8 | ········ |
| Like Moses by the Red Sea's wave! | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| The stern accord her timbrel lent | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| To Miriam's note of triumph sent | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| O'er Egypt's sunken armament! | 8 | ·/˘/˘/˘˘ |
| The tramp that startled camp and town, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And shook the walls of slavery down, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The spectral march of old John Brown! | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| The storm that swept through battle-days, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The triumph after long delays, | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| The bondmen giving God the praise! | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Voice of a ransomed race, sing on | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Till Freedom's every right is won, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| And slavery's every wrong undone | 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.