To Samuel E. Sewall and Harriet W. Sewall, of Melrose
OLOR ISCANUS queries: "Why should weVex at the land's ridiculous miserie?"So on his Usk banks, in the blood-red dawnOf England's civil strife, did careless VaughanBemock his times. O friends of many years!Though faith and trust are stronger than our fears,And the signs promise peace with liberty,Not thus we trifle with our country's tearsAnd sweat of agony. The future's gainIs certain as God's truth; but, meanwhile, painIs bitter and tears are salt: our voices takeA sober tone; our very household songsAre heavy with a nation's griefs and wrongs;And innocent mirth is chastened for the sakeOf the brave hearts that nevermore shall beat,The eyes that smile no more, the unreturningfeet!
Words in this poem
- strife n.
- The act of striving; earnest endeavor. [OF. estrif. See Strive.]
- bemock v. t.
- To mock; to ridicule.
- meanwhile n.
- The intervening time; as, in the meantime (or mean time).
- chastened a.
- Corrected; disciplined; refined; purified; toned down. Sir. W.
- nevermore adv.
- Never again; at no time hereafter. Testament of Love. Tyndale.
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To Samuel E. Sewall and Harriet W. Sewall, of Melrose 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, To Samuel E. Sewall and Harriet W. Sewall, of Melrose, 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/to-samuel-e-sewall-and-harriet-w-sewall-of-melrose.html, id L24907.
Form and metre
To Samuel E. Sewall and Harriet W. Sewall, of Melrose is 17 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%).
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 --AABB-BCCDEEDF-F we · miserie · dawnA · vaughanA · yearsB · fearsB · liberty · tearsB · gainC · painC · takeD · songsE · wrongsE · sakeD · beatF · unreturning · feetF
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| OLOR ISCANUS queries: "Why should we | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Vex at the land's ridiculous miserie?" | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| So on his Usk banks, in the blood-red dawn | 10 | ·········· |
| Of England's civil strife, did careless Vaughan | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Bemock his times. O friends of many years! | 10 | ˘/·····/˘· |
| Though faith and trust are stronger than our fears, | 10 | ·····/˘·/· |
| And the signs promise peace with liberty, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘˘ |
| Not thus we trifle with our country's tears | 10 | ···/˘·//˘· |
| And sweat of agony. The future's gain | 10 | ···/˘˘·/˘· |
| Is certain as God's truth; but, meanwhile, pain | 10 | ·/˘····/·· |
| Is bitter and tears are salt: our voices take | 11 | ·/˘····//˘· |
| A sober tone; our very household songs | 10 | ·/˘·//˘/·· |
| Are heavy with a nation's griefs and wrongs; | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| And innocent mirth is chastened for the sake | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Of the brave hearts that nevermore shall beat, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| The eyes that smile no more, the unreturning | 11 | ··········· |
| feet! | 1 | · |
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.