Book of Mormon Poet
Poetry in the BoM

Chiasmus · Alma 29:1–7

O That I Were an Angel

Alma’s wish to cry repentance with the trump of God, then the quieting of that wish. The poem begins and ends with the angel he is not, and rests on the work he has been given.

  1. A

    O that I were an angel, and could have the wish of mine heart, that I might go forth and speak with the trump of God.29:1

  2. B

    I would declare unto every soul repentance and the plan of redemption, that there might not be more sorrow upon all the face of the earth.29:2

  3. C

    But behold, I am a man, and do sin in my wish; for I ought to be content with the things which the Lord hath allotted unto me.29:3

  4. D

    He granteth unto men according to their desire, whether it be unto death or unto life, according to their wills, whether they be unto salvation or unto destruction.29:4

  5. C′

    Now, seeing that I know these things, why should I desire more than to perform the work to which I have been called?29:6

  6. B′

    Why should I desire that I were an angel, that I could speak unto all the ends of the earth?29:7

  7. A′

    For what I do know, the same I know is true.29:7

Why the form matters

Donald Parry mapped overlapping chiasms through the whole chapter. The desire is not condemned so much as placed: contentment is not smallness; it is the refusal to harrow up the firm decree of a just God.