The Moral Warfare
WHEN Freedom, on her natal day,Within her war-rocked cradle lay,An iron race around her stood,Baptized her infant brow in blood;And, through the storm which round her swept,Their constant ward and watching kept.
Then, where our quiet herds repose,The roar of baleful battle rose,And brethren of a common tongueTo mortal strife as tigers sprung,And every gift on Freedom's shrineWas man for beast, and blood for wine!
Our fathers to their graves have gone;Their strife is past, their triumph won;But sterner trials wait the raceWhich rises in their honored place;A moral warfare with the crimeAnd folly of an evil time.
So let it be. In God's own mightWe gird us for the coming fight,And, strong in Him whose cause is oursIn conflict with unholy powers,We grasp the weapons He has given,--The Light, and Truth, and Love of Heaven.
Words in this poem
- natal a.
- Of or pertaining to one's birth; accompying or dating from one's birth; native. [L. natalis, fr. natus, p.p. of nasci to be born: cf. F. natal. See Nation, and cf. Noel.]
- strife n.
- The act of striving; earnest endeavor. [OF. estrif. See Strive.]
- sterner n.
- A director. Dr. R. Clerke. [See 3d Stern.]
- unholy a.
- Not holy; unhallowed; not consecrated; hence, profane; wicked; impious.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Moral Warfare 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 Moral Warfare, 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-moral-warfare.html, id L24851.
Form and metre
The Moral Warfare is 24 lines in 4 stanzas of 6 lines each. The rhyme scheme is AABBCC, complete in 2 of its 4 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 95%).
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 AABBCC dayA · layA · stoodB · bloodB · sweptC · keptC
- 2 AABBCC reposeA · roseA · tongueB · sprungB · shrineC · wineC
- 3 --AABB gone · won · raceA · placeA · crimeB · timeB
- 4 AABB-- mightA · fightA · oursB · powersB · given · heaven
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 |
|---|---|---|
| WHEN Freedom, on her natal day, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Within her war-rocked cradle lay, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| An iron race around her stood, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Baptized her infant brow in blood; | 8 | ˘/·/˘··· |
| And, through the storm which round her swept, | 8 | ········ |
| Their constant ward and watching kept. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Then, where our quiet herds repose, | 8 | ··//˘·˘/ |
| The roar of baleful battle rose, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| And brethren of a common tongue | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| To mortal strife as tigers sprung, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And every gift on Freedom's shrine | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Was man for beast, and blood for wine! | 8 | ········ |
| Our fathers to their graves have gone; | 8 | //˘····· |
| Their strife is past, their triumph won; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| But sterner trials wait the race | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Which rises in their honored place; | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| A moral warfare with the crime | 8 | ·/˘/···· |
| And folly of an evil time. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| So let it be. In God's own might | 8 | ········ |
| We gird us for the coming fight, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And, strong in Him whose cause is ours | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| In conflict with unholy powers, | 9 | ·/˘·˘/˘/˘ |
| We grasp the weapons He has given,-- | 9 | ···/˘··/˘ |
| The Light, and Truth, and Love of Heaven. | 9 | ·······/˘ |
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.