Maybe this is what you are looking for? (%i1) load("coeflist"); (%o1) "C:/PROGRA~1/MAXIMA~1.0-2/share/maxima/5.28.0-2/share/contrib/format/coeflist.lisp" (%i2) coeffs(x^3+a*x+1,x); (%o2) [[%poly,x],[1,0],[a,1],[1,3]]