Journal 7- Abolitionist Poetry

In Whittier's poem, The Farwell of a Virginia Slave Mother to her Daughters Sold into Southern Bondage, the most compelling element I saw was the use of sound. The rhyming pattern combined with the repetition of certain words made it a very memorable poem. The rhyming of each couplet in the poem could have made it easy for people to remember because each line foreshadows what will be said in the next line. Also, the number of syllables in each line gave it a rhythm that was carried throughout the poem. These two combined elements make it easier for people to remember the words of it once they've heard it, extending the poem's audience to the still prevalent illiterate population of America in the mid 1800's. The memorable quality of the poem also could have helped it reach another medium-- through song. The way the poem flows is very much like a song, which could have been another way for it to reach a greater audience.
A few lines that stood out to me were repeated throughout the writing: "Gone, gone- sold and gone/ To the rice swamp dank and lone./ From virginia's hills and waters;/ Woe is me, my stolen daughters!" This refrain appears, in its entirety, six times in the poem; and to me, this repetition gave the readers and listeners a chance to interpret the feelings with which the author wrote them. If someone read this poem out loud, the sound of these lines would change each of the six times it was said. I felt more emotional attachment to the lines each time I read them, and they really stuck in my mind. As the emotion builds throughout this poem, so does the reader's longing to be able to do something about it. This is the way Whittier calls his readers to action. By utilizing tools of sound to tell the reader that something needs to be done to end the system of slavery.