The Alchemist's Petition
Thou wilt not sentence to eternal lifeMy soul that prays that it may sleep and sleepLike a white statue dropped into the deep,Covered with sand, covered with chests of gold,And slave-bones, tossed from many a pirate hold.
But for this prayer thou wilt not bind in HellMy soul, that shook with love for Fame and Truth--In such unquenched desires consumed his youth--Let me turn dust, like dead leaves in the Fall,Or wood that lights an hour your knightly hall--Amen.
Words in this poem
- shook v. t.
- To pack, as staves, in a shook.
- knightly a.
- Of or pertaining to a knight; becoming a knight; chivalrous; as, a knightly combat; a knightly spirit. [AS. cnihtlic boyish.]
- amen interj.
- An expression used at the end of prayers, and meaning, So be it. At the end of a creed, it is a solemn asseveration of belief. [L. amen, Gr. am certainly, truly.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Alchemist's Petition is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Congo, and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #1021; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Vachel Lindsay, The Alchemist's Petition, in The Congo and Other Poems (1914), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1021, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/lindsay-congo/the-alchemist-s-petition.html, id L00960.
Form and metre
The Alchemist's Petition is 11 lines in 2 verse paragraphs. It is in rhyming couplets, 73% of the lines: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.3 syllables. 27% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in heroic couplets, other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 -AABB life · sleepA · deepA · goldB · holdB
- 2 -AABB- hell · truthA · youthA · fallB · hallB · amen
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Thou wilt not sentence to eternal life | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘· |
| My soul that prays that it may sleep and sleep | 10 | ·········· |
| Like a white statue dropped into the deep, | 10 | ···/······ |
| Covered with sand, covered with chests of gold, | 10 | /˘··/˘···· |
| And slave-bones, tossed from many a pirate hold. | 10 | ·····/·/˘· |
| But for this prayer thou wilt not bind in Hell | 10 | ·········· |
| My soul, that shook with love for Fame and Truth-- | 10 | ·········· |
| In such unquenched desires consumed his youth-- | 10 | ····˘/˘/·· |
| Let me turn dust, like dead leaves in the Fall, | 10 | ·········· |
| Or wood that lights an hour your knightly hall-- | 10 | ·····/·/˘· |
| Amen. | 2 | ˘/ |
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.