Swing Low Sweet Chariot Analysis

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Historically speaking the poems “Swing Low Sweet Chariot”, and “Where The Side Walk Ends”, are directed at a particular audience and written to be uplifting. Swing low sweet chariot has become one of the most recognizable song today. It has a vast and rich history, but its exact origin is unknown. Wallis Willis, a Choctaw freedman in the old Indian Territory, is accredited to writing it in 1862, however it was sung as early as the 1840s (aar 1). Swing Low sweet chariot is a spiritual. A spiritual is a religious folksong that is closely associated with slaves in the American South. Many spirituals have hidden meanings or messages that are linked to the Underground Railroad. In the line, “I looked over Jordan and what did I see-,” the song …show more content…

The poem is directed toward Jews and tells of a land that is free and easy. In the 1970s Jews were being allowed to immigrate out of Russia into Israel (Telushkin 1). The second stanza is depicting Russia as cold and dark, but as it says in the third stanza they would get to the sweet land in time, this is Israel. Silverstins parents were both born in the 1890s and they saw what the halicoust did to the Jews, sivlerstine saw this immigration as a big step into freeing the jews. Swing low sweet chariot is a spritual and has a measure and rhythm, where the sidewalk ends is free verse. The slaves that sang Swing Low Sweet Chariot were not trying to leave a place, they wanted to leave their masters claim to be free. The Jews wanted leave physical ground to be in their promise land. The two poems both share a promise of holy ground. The poems, Swing Low Sweet Chariot and Where The Side Walk Ends, were written nearly one hundred years apart yet they share the same idea. While one is physical and the other ideological, they share a promise of a better tomarrow. Swing Low Sweet Chariot and Where the sidewalk ends point to a particular audience and bring an uplift toward