A Wandering Student's Petition
I, a wandering scholar lad,Born for toil and sadness,Oftentimes am driven byPoverty to madness.
Literature and knowledge IFain would still be earning,Were it not that want of pelfMakes me cease from learning.
These torn clothes that cover meAre too thin and rotten;Oft I have to suffer cold,By the warmth forgotten.
Scarce I can attend at church,Sing God's praises duly;Mass and vespers both I miss,Though I love them truly.
Oh, thou pride of N----,By thy worth I pray theeGive the suppliant help in need,Heaven will sure repay thee.
Take a mind unto thee nowLike unto St. Martin;Clothe the pilgrim's nakedness,Wish him well at parting.
So may God translate your soulInto peace eternal,And the bliss of saints be yoursIn His realm supernal.
Words in this poem
- sadness n.
- Heaviness; firmness.
- oftentimes adv.
- Frequently; often; many times. [Often + time. Cf. -wards.]
- fain v. t.
- To be glad ; to wish or desire.
- earning n.
- That which is earned; wages gained by work or services; money earned; -- used commonly in the plural.
- pelf n.
- Money; riches; lucre; gain; -- generally conveying the idea of something ill-gotten or worthless. It has no plural. [OE. pelfir booty, OF. pelfre, akin to pelfrer to plunder, and perh. to E. pillage. Cf. Pilfer.]
- scarce a.
- Not plentiful or abundant; in small quantity in proportion to the demand; not easily to be procured; rare; uncommon. [OE. scars, OF. escars, eschars, LL. scarpsus, for L. excerptus, p. p. of excerpere to pick out, and hence to contract, to shorten; ex (see Ex-) + carpere. See C]
- suppliant a.
- Asking earnestly and submissively; entreating; beseeching; supplicating. [F., p.pr. of supplier to entreat, L. supplicare. See Supplicate, and cf. Supplicant.]
- nakedness n.
- The condition of being naked.
- supernal a.
- Being in a higher place or region; locally higher; as, the supernal orbs; supernal regions. [L. supernus, from super above: cf. F. supernel. See Super-.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Wandering Student's Petition is in the public domain. This text is taken from Wine, Women, and Song Mediaeval Latin Students' songs; Now first translated into English verse, Project Gutenberg ebook #18044; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: John Addington Symonds, A Wandering Student's Petition, in Wine, Women and Song (1884), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18044, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/symonds-wine-women/a-wandering-student-s-petition.html, id L11809.
Form and metre
A Wandering Student's Petition is 28 lines in 7 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.4 syllables. 13 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 29% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in trochaic 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-A lad · sadnessA · by · madnessA
- 2 -A-A i · earningA · pelf · learningA
- 3 -A-A me · rottenA · cold · forgottenA
- 4 -A-A church · dulyA · miss · trulyA
- 5 -A-A n · theeA · need · theeA
- 7 AA-A soulA · eternalA · yours · supernalA
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 trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| I, a wandering scholar lad, | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| Born for toil and sadness, | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Oftentimes am driven by | 6 | /˘··/· |
| Poverty to madness. | 6 | /˘˘·/˘ |
| Literature and knowledge I | 6 | /˘·/˘· |
| Fain would still be earning, | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Were it not that want of pelf | 7 | ······· |
| Makes me cease from learning. | 6 | ····/˘ |
| These torn clothes that cover me | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Are too thin and rotten; | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Oft I have to suffer cold, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| By the warmth forgotten. | 6 | ···˘/˘ |
| Scarce I can attend at church, | 7 | ···˘/·· |
| Sing God's praises duly; | 6 | ··/˘/˘ |
| Mass and vespers both I miss, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Though I love them truly. | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Oh, thou pride of N----, | 5 | ····· |
| By thy worth I pray thee | 6 | ······ |
| Give the suppliant help in need, | 8 | ··/˘˘··· |
| Heaven will sure repay thee. | 6 | /··˘/· |
| Take a mind unto thee now | 7 | ······· |
| Like unto St. Martin; | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Clothe the pilgrim's nakedness, | 7 | ··/˘/˘˘ |
| Wish him well at parting. | 6 | ····/˘ |
| So may God translate your soul | 7 | ···˘/·· |
| Into peace eternal, | 6 | ···˘/˘ |
| And the bliss of saints be yours | 7 | ······· |
| In His realm supernal. | 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.