The Sifting of Peter
In St. Luke's Gospel we are toldHow Peter in the days of oldWas sifted;And now, though ages intervene,Sin is the same, while time and sceneAre shifted.
Satan desires us, great and small,As wheat to sift us, and we allAre tempted;Not one, however rich or great,Is by his station or estateExempted.
No house so safely guarded isBut he, by some device of his,Can enter;No heart hath armor so completeBut he can pierce with arrows fleetIts centre.
For all at last the cock will crow,Who hear the warning voice, but goUnheeding,Till thrice and more they have deniedThe Man of Sorrows, crucifiedAnd bleeding.
One look of that pale suffering faceWill make us feel the deep disgraceOf weakness;We shall be sifted till the strengthOf self-conceit be changed at lengthTo meekness.
Wounds of the soul, though healed will ache;The reddening scars remain, and makeConfession;Lost innocence returns no more;We are not what we were beforeTransgression.
But noble souls, through dust and heat,Rise from disaster and defeatThe stronger,And conscious still of the divineWithin them, lie on earth supineNo longer.
Words in this poem
- centre v. i.
- To be placed in a center; to be central.
- 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,]
- meekness n.
- The quality or state of being meek.
- ache n.
- A name given to several species of plants; as, smallage, wild celery, parsley. Holland. [F. ache, L. apium parsley.]
- disaster n.
- An unpropitious or baleful aspect of a planet or star; malevolent influence of a heavenly body; hence, an ill portent. [F. désastre; pref. dés- (L. dis-) + astre star, fr. L. astrum; a word of astrological origin. See Aster, Astral, Star.]
- defeat v. t.
- To undo; to disfigure; to destroy. [From F. défait, OF. desfait, p. p. ofe défaire, OF. desfaire, to undo; L. dis- + facere to do. See Feat, Fact, and cf. Disfashion.]
- supine a.
- Lying on the back, or with the face upward; -- opposed to prone. [L. supinus, akin to sub under, super above. Cf. Sub-, Super-.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Sifting of Peter 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, The Sifting of Peter, in A Psalm of Life, and Other Poems (1839–1882), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1365, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/longfellow-poems/the-sifting-of-peter.html, id L17806.
Form and metre
The Sifting of Peter is 42 lines in 7 stanzas of 6 lines each. The rhyme scheme is AABCCB, complete in 6 of its 7 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.5 syllables. 13 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 48% 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 AABCCB toldA · oldA · siftedB · interveneC · sceneC · shiftedB
- 2 AABCCB smallA · allA · temptedB · greatC · estateC · exemptedB
- 3 AABCCB isA · hisA · enterB · completeC · fleetC · centreB
- 4 AABCCB crowA · goA · unheedingB · deniedC · crucifiedC · bleedingB
- 5 AAABBA faceA · disgraceA · weaknessA · strengthB · lengthB · meeknessA
- 6 AABCCB acheA · makeA · confessionB · moreC · beforeC · transgressionB
- 7 AABCCB heatA · defeatA · strongerB · divineC · supineC · longerB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| In St. Luke's Gospel we are told | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| How Peter in the days of old | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Was sifted; | 3 | ·/˘ |
| And now, though ages intervene, | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| Sin is the same, while time and scene | 8 | ········ |
| Are shifted. | 3 | ·/˘ |
| Satan desires us, great and small, | 8 | /˘˘/···· |
| As wheat to sift us, and we all | 8 | ········ |
| Are tempted; | 3 | ·/˘ |
| Not one, however rich or great, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Is by his station or estate | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| Exempted. | 3 | ˘/˘ |
| No house so safely guarded is | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| But he, by some device of his, | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| Can enter; | 3 | ·/˘ |
| No heart hath armor so complete | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| But he can pierce with arrows fleet | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Its centre. | 3 | ·/˘ |
| For all at last the cock will crow, | 8 | ········ |
| Who hear the warning voice, but go | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Unheeding, | 3 | ··· |
| Till thrice and more they have denied | 8 | ······˘/ |
| The Man of Sorrows, crucified | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| And bleeding. | 3 | ·/˘ |
| One look of that pale suffering face | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Will make us feel the deep disgrace | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Of weakness; | 3 | ·/˘ |
| We shall be sifted till the strength | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Of self-conceit be changed at length | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| To meekness. | 3 | ·/˘ |
| Wounds of the soul, though healed will ache; | 8 | ········ |
| The reddening scars remain, and make | 8 | ·/˘·˘/·· |
| Confession; | 3 | ˘/˘ |
| Lost innocence returns no more; | 8 | ·/˘˘˘/·· |
| We are not what we were before | 8 | ········ |
| Transgression. | 3 | ˘/˘ |
| But noble souls, through dust and heat, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Rise from disaster and defeat | 8 | ··˘/˘·˘/ |
| The stronger, | 3 | ·/˘ |
| And conscious still of the divine | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| Within them, lie on earth supine | 8 | ······˘/ |
| No longer. | 3 | ·/˘ |
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.