Analysis of Father, Father Abraham

James Weldon Johnson 1871 (Jacksonville) – 1938 (Wiscasset)



(On the Anniversary of Lincoln's Birth)

Father, Father Abraham,
Today look on us from above;
On us, the offspring of thy faith,
The children of thy Christ-like love.

For that which we have humbly wrought,
Give us today thy kindly smile;
Wherein we've failed or fallen short,
Bear with us, Father, yet awhile.

Father, Father Abraham,
Today we lift our hearts to thee,
Filled with the thought of what great price
Was paid, that we might ransomed be.

Today we consecrate ourselves
Anew in hand and heart and brain,
To send this judgment down the years:
The ransom was not paid in vain.


Scheme x Abxb xcxc Adxd xexe
Poetic Form
Metre 1001001101 101010 01111101 1101111 01011111 11111101 11011101 01111101 11110101 101010 011110111 11011111 1111111 01110001 01010101 11110101 01011101
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 574
Words 105
Sentences 5
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 1, 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 17
Letters per line (avg) 27
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 91
Words per stanza (avg) 21
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

32 sec read
106

James Weldon Johnson

James Weldon Johnson was an American author, educator, lawyer, diplomat, songwriter, and early civil rights activist. Johnson is best remembered for his leadership within the NAACP as well as for his writing, which includes novels, poems, and anthologies. He was also the first African-American professor at New York University. Later in life he was a professor of creative literature and writing at Fisk University. more…

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