Laurel · John Greenleaf Whittier · Anti-Slavery Poems and Songs of Labor and Reform

The New Exodus

John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–1892) · 1865

iambic tetrameter · ABAB · 35 lines · from Anti-Slavery Poems and Songs of Labor and Reform

Written upon hearing that slavery had been formally abolished in Egypt.Unhappily, the professions and pledges of the vacillating government ofEgypt proved unreliable.

BY fire and cloud, across the desert sand,And through the parted waves,From their long bondage, with an outstretched hand,God led the Hebrew slaves!

Dead as the letter of the Pentateuch,As Egypt's statues cold,In the adytum of the sacred bookNow stands that marvel old.

"Lo, God is great!" the simple Moslem says.We seek the ancient date,Turn the dry scroll, and make that living phraseA dead one: "God was great!"

And, like the Coptic monks by Mousa's wells,We dream of wonders past,Vague as the tales the wandering Arab tells,Each drowsier than the last.

O fools and blind! Above the PyramidsStretches once more that hand,And tranced Egypt, from her stony lids,Flings back her veil of sand.

And morning-smitten Memnon, singing, wakes;And, listening by his Nile,O'er Ammon's grave and awful visage breaksA sweet and human smile.

Not, as before, with hail and fire, and callOf death for midnight graves,But in the stillness of the noonday, fallThe fetters of the slaves.

No longer through the Red Sea, as of old,The bondmen walk dry shod;Through human hearts, by love of Him controlled,Runs now that path of God.

Words in this poem

vacillating a.: Inclined to fluctuate; wavering.
unreliable a.: Not reliable; untrustworthy. See Reliable.
adytum n.: The innermost sanctuary or shrine in ancient temples, whence oracles were given. Hence: A private chamber; a sanctum.
coptic a.: Of or pertaining to the Copts. [Abbrev. from L. Aegyptius an Egyprian, Gr. kibti, pl. kibt.]
memnon n.: A celebrated Egyptian statue near Thebes, said to have the property of emitting a harplike sound at sunrise.
visage n.: The face, countenance, or look of a person or an animal; -- chiefly applied to the human face. [F. visage, from L. visus a seeing, a look, fr. videre, visum, to see. See Vision.]
stillness n.: The quality or state of being still; quietness; silence; calmness; inactivity.
noonday n.: Midday; twelve o'clock in the day; noon.

Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.

About this text

The New Exodus 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 New Exodus, 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-new-exodus.html, id L24962.

Form and metre

The New Exodus is 35 lines in 9 stanzas. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 6 of its 9 stanzas. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic tetrameter.

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.

2 ABAB sand^A · waves^B · hand^A · slaves^B
3 -A-A pentateuch · cold^A · book · old^A
4 -A-A says · date^A · phrase · great^A
5 ABAB wells^A · past^B · tells^A · last^B
6 ABAB pyramids^A · hand^B · lids^A · sand^B
7 ABAB wakes^A · nile^B · breaks^A · smile^B
8 ABAB call^A · graves^B · fall^A · slaves^B
9 ABAB old^A · shod^B · controlled^A · god^B

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
Written upon hearing that slavery had been formally abolished in Egypt.	19	/˘··/˘·/˘··/˘˘/˘·/˘
Unhappily, the professions and pledges of the vacillating government of	19	˘/˘·˘/˘·/˘··/˘·˘/˘·
Egypt proved unreliable.	8	/˘··˘/˘˘
BY fire and cloud, across the desert sand,	10	·/··˘/·/˘·
And through the parted waves,	6	···/˘·
From their long bondage, with an outstretched hand,	10	···/˘··˘/·
God led the Hebrew slaves!	6	···/˘·
Dead as the letter of the Pentateuch,	10	···/˘··/˘˘
As Egypt's statues cold,	6	·/˘/··
In the adytum of the sacred book	10	··/˘˘··/˘·
Now stands that marvel old.	6	···/˘·
"Lo, God is great!" the simple Moslem says.	10	·····/˘/˘·
We seek the ancient date,	6	···/˘·
Turn the dry scroll, and make that living phrase	10	·······/˘·
A dead one: "God was great!"	6	······
And, like the Coptic monks by Mousa's wells,	10	···/˘·····
We dream of wonders past,	6	···/˘·
Vague as the tales the wandering Arab tells,	10	·····/˘/˘·
Each drowsier than the last.	6	······
O fools and blind! Above the Pyramids	9	·······/˘
Stretches once more that hand,	6	/˘····
And tranced Egypt, from her stony lids,	9	··/˘··/˘·
Flings back her veil of sand.	6	······
And morning-smitten Memnon, singing, wakes;	10	·/˘/˘/·/˘·
And, listening by his Nile,	7	·/˘˘···
O'er Ammon's grave and awful visage breaks	10	·/˘··/˘/˘·
A sweet and human smile.	6	···/˘·
Not, as before, with hail and fire, and call	10	·······/··
Of death for midnight graves,	6	···/··
But in the stillness of the noonday, fall	10	···/˘··/˘·
The fetters of the slaves.	6	·/˘···
No longer through the Red Sea, as of old,	10	·/˘·······
The bondmen walk dry shod;	6	······
Through human hearts, by love of Him controlled,	10	·/˘·····˘/
Runs now that path of God.	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.

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