Original scientific paper
“Keep Your Eyes on the Prize”: The Background and Evolution of the Proverb
Charles Clay Doyle
orcid.org/0000-0001-7070-8811
Abstract
The proverb “Keep your eyes on the prize” achieved popularity as a motto or hortatory slogan in the American civil rights movement of the 1960s. The saying had become common as a refrain in an old spiritual—a favorite “freedom song”—replacing the traditional refrain, “Keep your hand on the plow.” Prior to its widespread use by participants in the civil rights movement, interesting analogs occurred. In the seventeenth century and throughout the nineteenth centuries, it appeared with some frequency as a Christian exhortation. In recent times “Keep your eyes on the prize” has been used more broadly to urge focused effort toward a variety of goals.
Keywords
historical study of proverbs; American proverbs; civil rights movement; religious proverbs; American spirituals; freedom songs
Hrčak ID:
278266
URI
Publication date:
31.8.2017.
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