The Amulet
Your picture smiles as first it smiled;The ring you gave is still the same;Your letter tells, O changing child!No tidings since it came.
Give me an amuletThat keeps intelligence with you,--Red when you love, and rosier red,And when you love not, pale and blue.
Alas! that neither bonds nor vowsCan certify possession;Torments me still the fear that loveDied in its last expression.
Words in this poem
- rosier n.
- A rosebush; roses, collectively. [F., fr. L. rosarius of roses. Cf. Rosary.]
- certify v. t.
- To give cetain information to; to assure; to make certain. [F. certifier, LL. certificare; L. certus certain + facere to make. See Certain, and cf. Certificate, v. t.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Amulet 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, The Amulet, in Poems (1847), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12843, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/emerson-poems/the-amulet.html, id L07417.
Form and metre
The Amulet is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.5 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 25% 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 ABAB smiledA · sameB · childA · cameB
- 2 -A-A amulet · youA · red · blueA
- 3 -A-A vows · possessionA · love · expressionA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Your picture smiles as first it smiled; | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| The ring you gave is still the same; | 8 | ········ |
| Your letter tells, O changing child! | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| No tidings since it came. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Give me an amulet | 6 | ···/˘˘ |
| That keeps intelligence with you,-- | 8 | ··˘/˘˘·· |
| Red when you love, and rosier red, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And when you love not, pale and blue. | 8 | ········ |
| Alas! that neither bonds nor vows | 8 | ˘/·/˘··· |
| Can certify possession; | 7 | ·/˘·˘/˘ |
| Torments me still the fear that love | 8 | /······· |
| Died in its last expression. | 7 | ····˘/˘ |
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.