John. No!
Art thou that Prophet, then,Of lamentation and woe,Who, as a symbol and signOf impending wrath divineUpon unbelieving men,Shattered the vessel of clayIn the Valley of Slaughter?
Nay.I am not he thou namest!
Who art thou, and what is the wordThat here thou proclaimest?
I am the voice of oneCrying in the wilderness alone:Prepare ye the way of the Lord;Make his paths straightIn the land that is desolate!
If thou be not the Christ,Nor yet Elias, nor heThat, in sign of the things to be,Shattered the vessel of clayIn the Valley of Slaughter,Then declare unto us, and sayBy what authority nowBaptizest thou?
I indeed baptize you with waterUnto repentance; but He,That cometh after me,Is mightier than I and higher;The latchet of whose shoesI an not worthy to unloose;He shall baptize you with fire,And with the Holy Ghost!Whose fan is in his hand;He will purge to the uttermostHis floor, and garner his wheat,But will burn the chaff in the brandAnd fire of unquenchable heat!Repent! repent! repent!
Words in this poem
- unbelieving a.
- Not believing; incredulous; doubting; distrusting; skeptical.
- baptize v. t.
- To administer the sacrament of baptism to. [F. baptiser, L. baptizare, fr.Gr. . See Baptism.]
- latchet n.
- The string that fastens a shoe; a shoestring. [OE. lachet, from an OF. dialect form of F. lacet plaited string, lace dim. of lacs. See Lace.]
- unloose v. t.
- To make loose; to loosen; to set free. [1st pref. un- (intensive) + loose.]
- 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,]
- ghost n.
- The spirit; the soul of man. [OE. gast, gost, soul, spirit, AS. gast breath, spirit, soul; akin to OS. g spirit, soul, D. geest, G. geist, and prob. to E. gaze, ghastly.]
- uttermost a.
- Extreme; utmost; being; in the farthest, greatest, or highest degree; as, the uttermost extent or end. [From Utter, a.; cf. Utmost, and Outermost.]
- garner n.
- A granary; a building or place where grain is stored for preservation. [OE. garner, gerner, greiner, OF. gernier, grenier, F. grenier, fr. L. granarium, fr. granum. See 1st Grain, and cf. Granary.]
- repent a.
- Prostrate and rooting; -- said of stems. Gray. [L. repens, -entis, creeping, p. pr. of repere to creep.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
John. No! is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Complete Poetical Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Project Gutenberg ebook #1365; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, John. No!, in The Complete Poetical Works (1839–1882), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1365, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/longfellow-poems/john-no.html, id L17854.
Form and metre
John. No! is 38 lines in 6 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 79%). 90% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.9 syllables. 7 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 37% 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 A-BBA-- thenA · woe · signB · divineB · menA · clay · slaughter
- 4 ---AA one · alone · lord · straightA · desolateA
- 5 -AAB-BCC christ · heA · beA · clayB · slaughter · sayB · nowC · thouC
- 6 -AAB--BCDCEDE- water · heA · meA · higherB · shoes · unloose · fireB · ghostC · handD · uttermostC · wheatE · brandD · heatE · repent
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Art thou that Prophet, then, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Of lamentation and woe, | 7 | ······· |
| Who, as a symbol and sign | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| Of impending wrath divine | 7 | ·˘/˘·˘/ |
| Upon unbelieving men, | 7 | ···˘/˘· |
| Shattered the vessel of clay | 7 | /˘·/˘·· |
| In the Valley of Slaughter? | 7 | ··/˘·/˘ |
| Nay. | 1 | · |
| I am not he thou namest! | 7 | ······· |
| Who art thou, and what is the word | 8 | ········ |
| That here thou proclaimest? | 6 | ···˘/˘ |
| I am the voice of one | 6 | ······ |
| Crying in the wilderness alone: | 9 | /˘··/˘˘˘/ |
| Prepare ye the way of the Lord; | 8 | ˘/······ |
| Make his paths straight | 4 | ···· |
| In the land that is desolate! | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| If thou be not the Christ, | 6 | ······ |
| Nor yet Elias, nor he | 7 | ··˘/˘·· |
| That, in sign of the things to be, | 8 | ········ |
| Shattered the vessel of clay | 7 | /˘·/˘·· |
| In the Valley of Slaughter, | 7 | ··/˘·/˘ |
| Then declare unto us, and say | 8 | ·˘/····· |
| By what authority now | 7 | ··˘/˘˘· |
| Baptizest thou? | 4 | ˘/˘· |
| I indeed baptize you with water | 9 | ·˘/˘/··/˘ |
| Unto repentance; but He, | 7 | ··˘/˘·· |
| That cometh after me, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Is mightier than I and higher; | 9 | ·/˘˘···/˘ |
| The latchet of whose shoes | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| I an not worthy to unloose; | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| He shall baptize you with fire, | 8 | ··˘/··/˘ |
| And with the Holy Ghost! | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Whose fan is in his hand; | 6 | ······ |
| He will purge to the uttermost | 8 | ·····/˘˘ |
| His floor, and garner his wheat, | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| But will burn the chaff in the brand | 8 | ········ |
| And fire of unquenchable heat! | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| Repent! repent! repent! | 6 | ˘/˘/˘/ |
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.