A Petition
I pray to be the tool which to your handLong use has shaped and moulded till it beApt for your need, and, unconsideringly,You take it for its service. I demandTo be forgotten in the woven strandWhich grows the multi-coloured tapestryOf your bright life, and through its tissues lieA hidden, strong, sustaining, grey-toned band.I wish to dwell around your daylight dreams,The railing to the stairway of the clouds,To guard your steps securely up, where streamsA faery moonshine washing pale the crowdsOf pointed stars. Remember not wherebyYou mount, protected, to the far-flung sky.
Words in this poem
- coloured a.
- Having color; tinged; dyed; painted; stained.
- dwell v. i.
- To delay; to linger. [OE. dwellen, dwelien, to err, linger, AS. dwellan to deceive, hinder, delay, dwelian to err; akin to Icel. dvelja to delay, tarry, Sw. dväljas to dwell, Dan. dv]
- daylight n.
- The light of day as opposed to the darkness of night; the light of the sun, as opposed to that of the moon or to artificial light.
- stairway n.
- A flight of stairs or steps; a staircase.
- moonshine n.
- The light of the moon.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Petition is in the public domain. This text is taken from Sword Blades and Poppy Seed, Project Gutenberg ebook #1020; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Amy Lowell, A Petition, in Sword Blades and Poppy Seed (1914), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1020, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/lowell-amy-sword-blades/a-petition.html, id L08209.
Form and metre
A Petition is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 99% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 64% 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--AA-BACDCDBB handA · be · unconsideringly · demandA · strandA · tapestry · lieB · bandA · dreamsC · cloudsD · streamsC · crowdsD · wherebyB · skyB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I pray to be the tool which to your hand | 10 | ·········· |
| Long use has shaped and moulded till it be | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Apt for your need, and, unconsideringly, | 11 | ··········· |
| You take it for its service. I demand | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| To be forgotten in the woven strand | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘· |
| Which grows the multi-coloured tapestry | 10 | ···/˘/˘/˘˘ |
| Of your bright life, and through its tissues lie | 10 | ·······/·· |
| A hidden, strong, sustaining, grey-toned band. | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘··· |
| I wish to dwell around your daylight dreams, | 10 | ·······/·· |
| The railing to the stairway of the clouds, | 10 | ·/˘··/···· |
| To guard your steps securely up, where streams | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| A faery moonshine washing pale the crowds | 10 | ···/·/˘··· |
| Of pointed stars. Remember not whereby | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘··· |
| You mount, protected, to the far-flung sky. | 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.