Analysis of America’s Journey Towards Greatness
Karl Constantine FOLKES 1935 (Portland)
Nations rise and nations fall
All struggling for greatness
None is found without default
All have weaknesses and strengths.
The paths that lead to greatness
Are not without suffering
The journey of America
Follows similar outcomes.
Her greatness is unquestioned
As leader of the Free World
A champion of human rights
Upholding civil liberties.
Yet America must confess
The cost of human sacrifice
That made her country great
At price of others’ freedom.
A “Great America” was made
By slavery’s economy
With a cotton industry
Of labor without payment.
By blood, by sweat, by tears
Our nation thrived and flourished
Once seized by Britain’s stronghold
She enchained Mother Africa’s wealth.
America gained her freedom
By a labor of servitude
To garner her democracy
Advanced by stalwart slogan:
“All are created equal
With Liberty and Justice
Dispensed for all her peoples
By race, class, color, and creed.”
America became great
Seeking liberty for all
And as a nation of immigrants
Struggling to become one people.
Her journey has been faulty:
Sloganeering racism and sexism
Uprooting other cultures
Both indigenous and foreign.
“Together as one people
And unified in vision
With equality and justice for all”
Must be her common dictum.
America hails as leader
Of freedom for all peoples
For all nations and all cultures
Showcasing her promise of greatness.
The future holds bright promise
Democracy must then prevail
It comes with obvious sacrifices
Of sharing wealth with justice.
A nation’s wealth and greatness
Endure with Loving Kindness
With laws that treat all equal
Conducted without prejudices.
As nation of the Free World
Her mission must continue
With leaders working together
With a common goal of equity.
United in that effort
Beyond party affiliation
Trusting in God Almighty
To be their advocate.
This then must be the pathway
As leader of the Free World
Granting those rights of passage
Welcoming all in equal partnership.
May God grant this nation
The Peace she seeks for all nations
To govern by Faith, Hope, and Love
With Liberty and Justice for all.
| Scheme | abxx bxxx xCxx xxde xffx xxxx exfg hbix daxh fejg hgae kijb bxlb bbhl cxkf xgfx xCxx gxxa |
|---|---|
| Poetic Form | |
| Metre | 1010101 1100110 1110101 1110001 0111110 1101100 01010100 101001 0101010 1101011 01001101 01010100 10100101 0111010 110101 1111010 01010011 110100 1010100 1100110 111111 10101010 111101 111011 01001010 1010110 11000100 0111010 1101010 1100010 0111010 1111001 0100011 1010011 010101100 100101110 0101110 1100100 0101010 10100010 0101110 010010 1010001011 1101010 01001110 1101110 11100110 100010110 0101110 01001101 111100100 1101110 0101010 0111010 1111110 010011000 1101011 0101010 11010010 101011100 0100110 01100010 1001010 111100 111101 1101011 1011110 100101010 111110 01111110 11011101 110001011 |
| Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
| Characters | 2,130 |
| Words | 395 |
| Sentences | 17 |
| Stanzas | 18 |
| Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
| Lines Amount | 72 |
| Letters per line (avg) | 24 |
| Words per line (avg) | 5 |
| Letters per stanza (avg) | 94 |
| Words per stanza (avg) | 19 |
About this poem
Out of Many One People: The Individuated Journey of America to Attain Her Destiny: Over its 240 year history, America’s journey towards greatness has revealed a story of blood, sweat, and tears, of civil war, of the bondage and freeing of slaves, of women’s suffrage and the gaining of women’s right to vote, of gender and marriage discrimination, and of multiple challenges to the American pledge of democracy and the formation of a democratic government. As we forge into the future of a brave new world of the twenty first century, the hope must be that America will maintain its pledge of one nation under God with liberty and justice for all. This eighteen-stanza four-line 7-7-7-7 metered unrhymed freestyle poem, “America’s Journey Towards Greatness,” is composed to suggest that just as our individual goals, consciously or unconsciously, are teleologically designed towards self-fulfillment, even more so is the goal of the United States of America as a nation teleologically designed to fulfill its promises of equal justice for all. God Bless America! Especially in times of a strident Marxist-oriented Critical Race Theory (CRT) philosophy that is currently pervade in America and spreading throughout the world, may God bless, preserve, defend, nurture and strengthen the nucleus of the nuclear family! more »
Written on July 27, 2022
Submitted by karlcfolkes on July 27, 2022
Modified by karlcfolkes on April 21, 2023
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"America’s Journey Towards Greatness" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 30 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/132663/america%E2%80%99s-journey-towards-greatness>.
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