"Advice to a
Prophet" is composed of nine quatrains with an
abba rhyme scheme. The formal structure of the poem is
appropriate to its serious content. Richard Wilbur begins the poem by addressing a hypothetical
prophet who needs to appear in reality to persuade the human race to eliminate the weapons of twentieth century warfare, which can annihilate life on earth. The poet imagines that the prophet, when he states this danger, will be "mad-eyed" from being ignored. Consequently, the prophet needs the poet’s advice on how to tell the truth in effective language.
The poet imagines that the prophet will not speak of
humanity’s "fall," like the prophets of the Old Testament, but will beg people in "God’s name" to have self-pity. The poet begins to offer advice in stanza 2, telling the prophet not to speak of the "force and range" of weapons, because people cannot imagine numbers so large or the destructive power to which they refer. Similarly, the poet explains in stanza 3, the prophet’s talk about the death of the human race will have no effect, because humanity is incapable of imagining an unpeopled world.
Instead, the poet recommends in stanza 4, the prophet should speak of the changes the use of weapons would cause in the natural world. These are comprehensible because they are familiar. Humanity has witnessed changes brought about by natural processes, such as a cloud dispersing or a vine killed by frost. Also, the poet states in stanza 5, people have watched deer flee into a forest and birds fly away, disturbed by human presence. A pine tree growing at a cliff’s edge, its roots half-exposed, about to fall, is also a familiar sight. The poet returns to the effects of war on nature in stanza 6, providing an example from history. The ancient city of Xanthus was burned so severely in war that the debris of the Xanthus river caught on fire, stunning the trout.
After focusing attention on changes in the natural world, the poet recommends, in stanza 7, that the prophet ask what humanity would be without nature. The poet explains that nature is a "live tongue," giving images, such as "the dolphin’s arc, the dove’s return," that people use to express their own thoughts and feelings. The poet gives more examples in stanza 8: the rose, representing love, and the shell of a locust, expressing the idea of the soul leaving a body at death. Images from nature also enable people to represent ideal selves—perhaps graceful like the dolphin or faithful like the dove. In the concluding stanza, the poet asks if human language would be possible without the images of nature. He tells the prophet to ask if human hearts would "fail" if people had only the "worldless rose." Without the oak tree, could there be ideas like "lofty" and "long standing"?