The Lord's Prayer on a Coin
Upon this quarter-eagle's leveled face,The Lord's Prayer, legibly inscribed, I trace."Our Father which"--the pronoun there is funny,And shows the scribe to have addressed the money--"Which art in Heaven"--an error this, no doubt:The preposition should be stricken out.Needless to quote; I only have designedTo praise the frankness of the pious mindWhich thought it natural and right to join,With rare significancy, prayer and coin.
Words in this poem
- legibly adv.
- In a legible manner.
- funny a.
- Droll; comical; amusing; laughable. Funny bone. See crazy bone, under Crazy. [From Fun.]
- scribe n.
- One who writes; a draughtsman; a writer for another; especially, an offical or public writer; an amanuensis or secretary; a notary; a copyist. [L. scriba, fr. scribere to write; cf. Gr. scarify. Cf. Ascribe, Describe, Script, Scrivener, Scrutoire.]
- stricken p. p.
- Struck; smitten; wounded; as, the stricken deer.
- needless a.
- Having no need.
- frankness n.
- The quality of being frank; candor; openess; ingenuousness; fairness; liberality.
- significancy n.
- The quality or state of being significant. [L. significantia.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Lord's Prayer on a Coin is in the public domain. This text is taken from Shapes of Clay (1903), Project Gutenberg ebook #12658; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Ambrose Bierce, The Lord's Prayer on a Coin, in Shapes of Clay (1903), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12658, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bierce-shapes-of-clay/the-lords-prayer-on-a-coin.html, id L28072.
Form and metre
The Lord's Prayer on a Coin is 10 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%).
See other poems in heroic couplets, other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 AABBCCDDEE faceA · traceA · funnyB · moneyB · doubtC · outC · designedD · mindD · joinE · coinE
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Upon this quarter-eagle's leveled face, | 10 | ···/˘/˘/˘· |
| The Lord's Prayer, legibly inscribed, I trace. | 10 | ···/˘˘˘/·· |
| "Our Father which"--the pronoun there is funny, | 11 | //˘··/˘··/˘ |
| And shows the scribe to have addressed the money-- | 11 | ······˘/·/˘ |
| "Which art in Heaven"--an error this, no doubt: | 10 | ···/·/˘··· |
| The preposition should be stricken out. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Needless to quote; I only have designed | 10 | /˘···/˘·˘/ |
| To praise the frankness of the pious mind | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Which thought it natural and right to join, | 10 | ···/˘˘···· |
| With rare significancy, prayer and coin. | 10 | ·········· |
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.