Bacchus
Bring me wine, but wine which never grewIn the belly of the grape,Or grew on vine whose tap-roots, reaching through,Under the Andes to the Cape,Suffer no savor of the earth to scape.
Let its grapes the morn saluteFrom a nocturnal root,Which feels the acrid juiceOf Styx and Erebus;And turns the woe of Night,By its own craft, to a more rich delight.
We buy ashes for bread;We buy diluted wine;Give me of the true,--Whose ample leaves and tendrils curledAmong the silver hills of heavenDraw everlasting dew;Wine of wine,Blood of the world,Form of forms, and mould of statures,That I intoxicated,And by the draught assimilated,May float at pleasure through all natures;The bird-language rightly spell,And that which roses say so well.
Wine that is shedLike the torrents of the sunUp the horizon walls,Or like the Atlantic streams, which runWhen the South Sea calls.
Water and bread,Food which needs no transmuting,Rainbow-flowering, wisdom-fruiting,Wine which is already man,Food which teach and reason can.
Wine which Music is,--Music and wine are one,--That I, drinking this,Shall hear far Chaos talk with me;Kings unborn shall walk with me;And the poor grass shall plot and planWhat it will do when it is man.Quickened so, will I unlockEvery crypt of every rock.
I thank the joyful juiceFor all I know;--Winds of rememberingOf the ancient being blow,And seeming-solid walls of useOpen and flow.
Pour, Bacchus! the remembering wine;Retrieve the loss of me and mine!Vine for vine be antidote,And the grape requite the lote!Haste to cure the old despair,--Reason in Nature's lotus drenched,The memory of ages quenched;Give them again to shine;Let wine repair what this undid;And where the infection slid,A dazzling memory revive;Refresh the faded tints,Recut the aged prints,And write my old adventures with the penWhich on the first day drew,Upon the tablets blue,The dancing Pleiads and eternal men.
Words in this poem 15
- morn n.
- The first part of the day; the morning; -- used chiefly in poetry. [OE. morwen, morgen, AS. morgen; akin to D. morgen, OS. morgan, G. morgen, Icel. morginn, morgunn, Sw. morgon, Dan. morgen, Goth. maúrgins. Cf. Morrow, Morning.]
- styx n.
- The principal river of the lower world, which had to be crossed in passing to the regions of the dead.
- erebus n.
- A place of nether darkness, being the gloomy space through which the souls passed to Hades. See Milton's
- craft n.
- Strength; might; secret power. [AS. cr strength, skill, art, cunning; akin to OS., G., Sw., & Dan. kraft strength, D. kracht, Icel. kraptr; perh. originally, a drawing together, stretching, fr]
- mould n.
- Crumbling, soft, friable earth; esp., earth containing the remains or constituents of organic matter, and suited to the growth of plants; soil. [OE. molde, AS. molde; akin to D. mul, G. mull, mulm, OHG. molt, molta, Icel. mold, Dan. muld, Sw. mull, Goth. mulda, and E. meal flour. See Meal, and cf. Mole a]
- rightly adv.
- Straightly; directly; in front. [AS. richtlice.]
- needs adv.
- Of necessity; necessarily; indispensably; -- often with must, and equivalent to of need. [Orig. gen. of need, used as an adverb. Cf. - wards.]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- chaos n.
- An empty, immeasurable space; a yawning chasm. [L. chaos chaos (in senses 1 & 2), Gr. Chasm.]
- unborn a.
- Not born; no yet brought into life; being still to appear; future.
- unlock v. t.
- To unfasten, as what is locked; as, to unlock a door or a chest. [Cf. AS. unl. See 1st Un-, and Lock, v. t.]
- crypt n.
- A vault wholly or partly under ground; especially, a vault under a church, whether used for burial purposes or for a subterranean chapel or oratory. [L. crypta vault, crypt, Gr. Crot, Crotto.]
- thank n.
- A expression of gratitude; an acknowledgment expressive of a sense of favor or kindness received; obligation, claim, or desert, or gratitude; -- now generally used in the plural. [AS. Þanc, Þonc, thanks, favor, thought; akin to OS. thank favor, pleasure, thanks, D. & G. dank thanks, Icel. Þ\'94kk, Dan. tak, Sw. tack, Goth. Þagks thanks; -]
- retrieve n.
- A seeking again; a discovery. B. Jonson.
- lote v. i.
- To lurk; to lie hid. [AS. lutian.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Bacchus is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems Household Edition, Project Gutenberg ebook #12843; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Bacchus, in Poems (1847), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12843, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/emerson-poems/bacchus.html, id L07427.
Form and metre
Bacchus is 67 lines in 8 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.0 syllables. 8 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 21% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 ABABB grewA · grapeB · throughA · capeB · scapeB
- 2 AA--BB saluteA · rootA · juice · erebus · nightB · delightB
- 3 -ABCABAC-DD-EE bread · wineA · trueB · curledC · heavenA · dewB · wineA · worldC · statures · intoxicatedD · assimilatedD · natures · spellE · wellE
- 4 -ABAB shed · sunA · wallsB · runA · callsB
- 5 -AABB bread · transmutingA · fruitingA · manB · canB
- 6 ---AABBCC is · one · this · meA · meA · planB · manB · unlockC · rockC
- 7 AB-BAB juiceA · knowB · remembering · blowB · useA · flowB
- 8 AA-----ABB-CCDEED wineA · mineA · antidote · lote · despair · drenched · quenched · shineA · undidB · slidB · revive · tintsC · printsC · penD · drewE · blueE · menD
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Bring me wine, but wine which never grew | 8 | ······/· |
| In the belly of the grape, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Or grew on vine whose tap-roots, reaching through, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Under the Andes to the Cape, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Suffer no savor of the earth to scape. | 10 | /˘·/˘····· |
| Let its grapes the morn salute | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| From a nocturnal root, | 6 | ··˘/˘· |
| Which feels the acrid juice | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Of Styx and Erebus; | 6 | ···/˘˘ |
| And turns the woe of Night, | 6 | ······ |
| By its own craft, to a more rich delight. | 10 | ········˘/ |
| We buy ashes for bread; | 6 | ··/˘·· |
| We buy diluted wine; | 6 | ··˘/˘· |
| Give me of the true,-- | 5 | ····· |
| Whose ample leaves and tendrils curled | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Among the silver hills of heaven | 9 | ···/˘··/˘ |
| Draw everlasting dew; | 6 | ··˘/˘· |
| Wine of wine, | 3 | ··· |
| Blood of the world, | 4 | ···· |
| Form of forms, and mould of statures, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| That I intoxicated, | 7 | ··˘/˘·˘ |
| And by the draught assimilated, | 9 | ····˘/˘·˘ |
| May float at pleasure through all natures; | 9 | ···/˘··/˘ |
| The bird-language rightly spell, | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| And that which roses say so well. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Wine that is shed | 4 | ···· |
| Like the torrents of the sun | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Up the horizon walls, | 6 | ··˘/˘· |
| Or like the Atlantic streams, which run | 9 | ···˘/˘··· |
| When the South Sea calls. | 5 | ····· |
| Water and bread, | 4 | /˘·· |
| Food which needs no transmuting, | 7 | ······· |
| Rainbow-flowering, wisdom-fruiting, | 9 | /·/˘˘/˘/˘ |
| Wine which is already man, | 7 | ···˘/˘· |
| Food which teach and reason can. | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Wine which Music is,-- | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Music and wine are one,-- | 6 | /˘···· |
| That I, drinking this, | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Shall hear far Chaos talk with me; | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Kings unborn shall walk with me; | 7 | ·//···· |
| And the poor grass shall plot and plan | 8 | ········ |
| What it will do when it is man. | 8 | ········ |
| Quickened so, will I unlock | 8 | /˘˘···˘/ |
| Every crypt of every rock. | 8 | /˘··/˘˘· |
| I thank the joyful juice | 6 | ···/˘· |
| For all I know;-- | 4 | ···· |
| Winds of remembering | 6 | ··˘/˘˘ |
| Of the ancient being blow, | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| And seeming-solid walls of use | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Open and flow. | 4 | /˘·· |
| Pour, Bacchus! the remembering wine; | 8 | ·/˘·˘/˘· |
| Retrieve the loss of me and mine! | 8 | ˘/······ |
| Vine for vine be antidote, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| And the grape requite the lote! | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| Haste to cure the old despair,-- | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| Reason in Nature's lotus drenched, | 8 | /˘·/˘/˘· |
| The memory of ages quenched; | 8 | ·/˘˘·/˘· |
| Give them again to shine; | 6 | ··˘/·· |
| Let wine repair what this undid; | 8 | ··˘/··˘/ |
| And where the infection slid, | 7 | ···˘/˘· |
| A dazzling memory revive; | 8 | ·/˘/˘˘˘/ |
| Refresh the faded tints, | 6 | ˘/·/˘· |
| Recut the aged prints, | 5 | ····· |
| And write my old adventures with the pen | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| Which on the first day drew, | 6 | ······ |
| Upon the tablets blue, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| The dancing Pleiads and eternal men. | 10 | ·/˘/˘·˘/˘· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.