The Amaranth
Ah, in the night, all music haunts me here....Is it for naught high Heaven cracks and yawnsAnd the tremendous Amaranth descendsSweet with the glory of ten thousand dawns?
Does it not mean my God would have me say:--"Whether you will or no, O city young,Heaven will bloom like one great flower for you,Flash and loom greatly all your marts among?"
Friends, I will not cease hoping though you weep.Such things I see, and some of them shall comeThough now our streets are harsh and ashen-gray,Though our strong youths are strident now, or dumb.Friends, that sweet town, that wonder-town, shall rise.Naught can delay it. Though it may not beJust as I dream, it comes at last I knowWith streets like channels of an incense-sea.
Words in this poem
- tremendous a.
- Fitted to excite fear or terror; such as may astonish or terrify by its magnitude, force, or violence; terrible; dreadful; as, a tremendous wind; a tremendous shower; a tremendous shock or fall. [L. tremendus that is to be trembled at, fearful, fr. tremere to tremble. See Tremble.]
- amaranth n.
- An imaginary flower supposed never to fade.
- 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,]
- strident a.
- Characterized by harshness; grating; shrill. [L. stridens, -entis, p.pr. of stridere to make a grating or creaking noise.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Amaranth 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 Amaranth, in The Congo and Other Poems (1914), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1021, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/lindsay-congo/the-amaranth.html, id L00959.
Form and metre
The Amaranth is 16 lines in 3 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.9 syllables. 31% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See 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 -A-A here · yawnsA · descends · dawnsA
- 2 -A-A say · youngA · you · amongA
- 3 -A-A-B-B weep · comeA · gray · dumbA · rise · beB · know · seaB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Ah, in the night, all music haunts me here.... | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Is it for naught high Heaven cracks and yawns | 9 | ·····/··· |
| And the tremendous Amaranth descends | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘·˘/ |
| Sweet with the glory of ten thousand dawns? | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Does it not mean my God would have me say:-- | 10 | ·········· |
| "Whether you will or no, O city young, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Heaven will bloom like one great flower for you, | 9 | /·····/·· |
| Flash and loom greatly all your marts among?" | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Friends, I will not cease hoping though you weep. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Such things I see, and some of them shall come | 10 | ·········· |
| Though now our streets are harsh and ashen-gray, | 10 | ··/····/˘· |
| Though our strong youths are strident now, or dumb. | 10 | ·/···/˘··· |
| Friends, that sweet town, that wonder-town, shall rise. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Naught can delay it. Though it may not be | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| Just as I dream, it comes at last I know | 10 | ·········· |
| With streets like channels of an incense-sea. | 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.