What elements of structure and text in "lift every voice and sing" make it a lyric poem?

A lyric poem is expressive and normally allows the audience to know the feelings and thoughts of the speaker. They tend to be short and use vivid imagery and adhere to a certain form of meter (the most common are: iambic, trochaic, anapestic). These poems are often sung by the people or meant to be songs from the beginning.

The poem's meter is irregular which means it is written in free verse. The poem has three stanzas, the first one is 10 lines, the second one is 11 lines and the last one is 12 lines. Therefore, the poem is rather short which is a characteristic of a lyric poem. However, the first 10 lines of each stanza have the same rhyme scheme, which is: AABCCBDDEE. In each stanza, there is at least one line that is fourteen syllables long. Finally, the writer uses iambic rhythm for some lines, for example in lines 14-15 "yet with a steady beat, have not our weary feet."

The poem makes allusions to historical references, for example, line 11 "stony the road we trod" is a reference to the African-American long path to freedom. Line 12 "Bitter the chastening rod" is a reference to the violence that African-Americans experienced as slaves and during the civil war. The writer also uses similes such as "let it resound loud as the rolling sea". These are just some examples of how the writer used literary devices to create imagery and send a strong message.

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