The Summons
MY ear is full of summer sounds,Of summer sights my languid eye;Beyond the dusty village boundsI loiter in my daily rounds,And in the noon-time shadows lie.
I hear the wild bee wind his horn,The bird swings on the ripened wheat,The long green lances of the cornAre tilting in the winds of morn,The locust shrills his song of heat.
Another sound my spirit hears,A deeper sound that drowns them all;A voice of pleading choked with tears,The call of human hopes and fears,The Macedonian cry to Paul!
The storm-bell rings, the trumpet blows;I know the word and countersign;Wherever Freedom's vanguard goes,Where stand or fall her friends or foes,I know the place that should be mine.
Shamed be the hands that idly fold,And lips that woo the reed's accord,When laggard Time the hour has tolledFor true with false and new with oldTo fight the battles of the Lord!
O brothers! blest by partial FateWith power to match the will and deed,To him your summons comes too lateWho sinks beneath his armor's weight,And has no answer but God-speed!
Words in this poem
- morn n.
- The first part of the day; the morning; -- used chiefly in poetry. [OE. morwen, morgen, AS. morgen; akin to D. morgen, OS. morgan, G. morgen, Icel. morginn, morgunn, Sw. morgon, Dan. morgen, Goth. maúrgins. Cf. Morrow, Morning.]
- macedonian a.
- Belonging, or relating, to Macedonia.
- countersign v. t.
- To sign on the opposite side of (an instrument or writing); hence, to sign in addition to the signature of a principal or superior, in order to attest the authenticity of a writing. [Counter- + sign: cf. F. contresigner.]
- wherever adv.
- At or in whatever place; wheresoever.
- vanguard n.
- The troops who march in front of an army; the advance guard; the van. [For vantguard, avantguard, F. avant-garde; avant before, fore + garde guard. See Avant, Ab-,Ante-, and Guard, and cf. Advance, Vamp, Van of an army, Vaward.]
- laggard a.
- Slow; sluggish; backward. [Lag + -ard.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Summons 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 Summons, 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-summons.html, id L24905.
Form and metre
The Summons is 30 lines in 6 stanzas of 5 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAAB. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 96%).
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 soundsA · eyeB · boundsA · roundsA · lieB
- 2 ABAAB hornA · wheatB · cornA · mornA · heatB
- 3 ABAAB hearsA · allB · tearsA · fearsA · paulB
- 4 ABAAB blowsA · countersignB · goesA · foesA · mineB
- 5 ABAAB foldA · accordB · tolledA · oldA · lordB
- 6 ABAAB fateA · deedB · lateA · weightA · speedB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| MY ear is full of summer sounds, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Of summer sights my languid eye; | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Beyond the dusty village bounds | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| I loiter in my daily rounds, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And in the noon-time shadows lie. | 8 | ·····/·· |
| I hear the wild bee wind his horn, | 8 | ········ |
| The bird swings on the ripened wheat, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The long green lances of the corn | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Are tilting in the winds of morn, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| The locust shrills his song of heat. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Another sound my spirit hears, | 8 | ˘/˘··/˘· |
| A deeper sound that drowns them all; | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| A voice of pleading choked with tears, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The call of human hopes and fears, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The Macedonian cry to Paul! | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| The storm-bell rings, the trumpet blows; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| I know the word and countersign; | 8 | ·····/˘˘ |
| Wherever Freedom's vanguard goes, | 8 | ˘/˘/˘/·· |
| Where stand or fall her friends or foes, | 8 | ········ |
| I know the place that should be mine. | 8 | ········ |
| Shamed be the hands that idly fold, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And lips that woo the reed's accord, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| When laggard Time the hour has tolled | 8 | ·/˘··/·· |
| For true with false and new with old | 8 | ········ |
| To fight the battles of the Lord! | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| O brothers! blest by partial Fate | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| With power to match the will and deed, | 8 | ·/······ |
| To him your summons comes too late | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Who sinks beneath his armor's weight, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And has no answer but God-speed! | 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.