The Alchemist
There lives an old man at the top of the streetAnd the end of his beard reaches down to his feet,And he’s just the one person I’m longing to meet,I think that he sounds so exciting;For he talks all the day to his tortoiseshell cat,And he asks about this, and explains about that,And at night he puts on a big wide-awake² hatAnd sits in the writing-room, writing.
He has worked all his life (and he’s terribly old)At a wonderful spell which says, “Lo, and behold!Your nursery fender is gold!”—and it’s gold!(Or the tongs, or the rod for the curtain);But some how he hasn’t got hold of it quite,Or the liquid you pour on it first isn’t right,So that’s why he works at it night after nightTill he knows he can do it for certain.
² So as not to go to sleep.
Words in this poem
- nursery n.
- The act of nursing. [Cf. F. nourricerie.]
- fender n.
- One who or that which defends or protects by warding off harm; as: (a) A screen to prevent coals or sparks of an open fire from escaping to the floor. [From Fend, v. t. & i., cf. Defender.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Alchemist is in the public domain. This text is taken from When We Were Very Young, Project Gutenberg ebook #70271; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: A. A. Milne, The Alchemist, in When We Were Very Young (1924), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #70271, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/milne-when-we-were-very-young/the-alchemist.html, id L27215.
Form and metre
The Alchemist is 17 lines in 3 stanzas. The rhyme scheme is AAABCCCB, complete in 2 of its 3 stanzas. The metre is anapaestic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%).
See other poems in anapaestic 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 AAABCCCB streetA · feetA · meetA · excitingB · catC · thatC · hatC · writingB
- 2 AAABCCCB oldA · beholdA · goldA · curtainB · quiteC · rightC · nightC · certainB
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 anapaestic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| There lives an old man at the top of the street | 11 | ··········· |
| And the end of his beard reaches down to his feet, | 12 | ······/˘···· |
| And he’s just the one person I’m longing to meet, | 12 | ·····/˘·/˘·· |
| I think that he sounds so exciting; | 9 | ······˘/˘ |
| For he talks all the day to his tortoiseshell cat, | 13 | ············· |
| And he asks about this, and explains about that, | 12 | ·······˘/··· |
| And at night he puts on a big wide-awake² hat | 12 | ·········˘/· |
| And sits in the writing-room, writing. | 9 | ····/˘·/˘ |
| He has worked all his life (and he’s terribly old) | 12 | ········/˘˘· |
| At a wonderful spell which says, “Lo, and behold! | 12 | ··/˘˘·····˘/ |
| Your nursery fender is gold!”—and it’s gold! | 11 | ·/˘˘/˘····· |
| (Or the tongs, or the rod for the curtain); | 10 | ········/˘ |
| But some how he hasn’t got hold of it quite, | 11 | ····/˘····· |
| Or the liquid you pour on it first isn’t right, | 12 | ··/˘·····˘˘· |
| So that’s why he works at it night after night | 11 | ··········· |
| Till he knows he can do it for certain. | 10 | ········/˘ |
| ² So as not to go to sleep. | 7 | ······· |
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.