Appeal
I lay among the half burned sticksat the edge of the fire.The fiend was creeping in.I felt the cold tips of fingers--O crimson salamander!
Give me one little flame,one!that I may bind itprotectingly about the wristof him that flung me here,here upon the very center!
This is my song.
Words in this poem
- protectingly adv.
- By way of protection; in a protective manner.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Appeal is in the public domain. This text is taken from A Book of Poems, Al Que Quiere!, Project Gutenberg ebook #51997; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: William Carlos Williams, Appeal, in Al Que Quiere! (1917), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #51997, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/williams-al-que-quiere/appeal.html, id L01095.
Form and metre
Appeal is 12 lines in 3 verse paragraphs. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 83%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.3 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 30% 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.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I lay among the half burned sticks | 8 | ········ |
| at the edge of the fire. | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| The fiend was creeping in. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| I felt the cold tips of fingers-- | 8 | ······/˘ |
| O crimson salamander! | 7 | ·/˘·˘/˘ |
| Give me one little flame, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| one! | 1 | · |
| that I may bind it | 5 | ····· |
| protectingly about the wrist | 8 | ˘/˘˘···· |
| of him that flung me here, | 6 | ······ |
| here upon the very center! | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| This is my song. | 4 | ···· |
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.