Analysis of Song Of Slaves In The Desert
John Greenleaf Whittier 1807 (Haverhill) – 1892 (Hampton Falls)
WHERE are we going? where are we going,
Where are we going, Rubee?
Lord of peoples, lord of lands,
Look across these shining sands,
Through the furnace of the noon,
Through the white light of the moon.
Strong the Ghiblee wind is blowing,
Strange and large the world is growing!
Speak and tell us where we are going,
Where are we going, Rubee?
Bornou land was rich and good,
Wells of water, fields of food,
Dourra fields, and bloom of bean,
And the palm-tree cool and green:
Bornou land we see no longer,
Here we thirst and here we hunger,
Here the Moor-man smites in anger:
Where are we going, Rubee?
When we went from Bornou land,
We were like the leaves and sand,
We were many, we are few;
Life has one, and death has two:
Whitened bones our path are showing,
Thou All-seeing, thou All-knowing!
Hear us, tell us, where are we going,
Where are we going, Rubee?
Moons of marches from our eyes
Bornou land behind us lies;
Stranger round us day by day
Bends the desert circle gray;
Wild the waves of sand are flowing,
Hot the winds above them blowing, —
Lord of all things! where are we going?
Where are we going, Rubee?
We are weak, but Thou art strong.;
Short our lives, but Thine is long;
We are blind, but Thou hast eyes;
We are fools, but Thou art wise!
Thou, our morrow's pathway knowing
Through the strange world round us growing,
Hear us, tell us where are we going,
Where are we going, Rubee?
Scheme | aBccddaaaBefgghhhBiijjaaABkkllaaaBmmkkaaAB |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1111011110 111101 1110111 1011101 1010101 1011101 1011110 10101110 101111110 111101 111101 1110111 110111 0011101 1111110 11101110 10111010 111101 111111 1010101 1010111 1110111 11101110 11101110 111111110 111101 11101101 110111 1011111 1010101 10111110 10101110 111111110 111101 1111111 11011111 1111111 1111111 1101110 10111110 111111110 111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,368 |
Words | 264 |
Sentences | 15 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 42 |
Lines Amount | 42 |
Letters per line (avg) | 25 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 1,070 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 262 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:19 min read
- 124 Views
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"Song Of Slaves In The Desert" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 9 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/23033/song-of-slaves-in-the-desert>.
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