To God on Prayer
O Thou, who, mingling Force and Love, dost drawAnd guide the complex of all entities,Framed for that purpose; whence our reason seesIn supreme Fate the synthesis of Law;Though prayers transgress which find defect or flawIn things foredoomed by Thy divine decrees,Yet wilt Thou modify, by slow degreesOr swift, good times or bad Thy mind foresaw:I therefore pray--I who through years have beenThe scorn of fools, the butt of impious men,Suffering new pains and torments day by day--Shorten this anguish, Lord, these griefs allay;For still Thou shalt not have changed counsel whenI soar from hence to liberty foreseen.
Words in this poem
- shalt
- 2d per. sing. of Shall.
- foreseen conj.
- , or (strictly) p. p. Provided; in case that; on condition that.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To God on Prayer is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Sonnets of Michael Angelo Buonarroti and Tommaso Campanella, Project Gutenberg ebook #10314, the John Addington Symonds translation; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Tommaso Campanella, To God on Prayer, in Sonnets (1878), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #10314, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/campanella-sonnets/to-god-on-prayer.html, id L27854.
Form and metre
To God on Prayer is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 81%).
See 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 ABBAABBACCDDC- drawA · entitiesB · seesB · lawA · flawA · decreesB · degreesB · foresawA · beenC · menC · dayD · allayD · whenC · foreseen
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 |
|---|---|---|
| O Thou, who, mingling Force and Love, dost draw | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| And guide the complex of all entities, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘˘ |
| Framed for that purpose; whence our reason sees | 10 | ···/˘·//˘· |
| In supreme Fate the synthesis of Law; | 10 | ·˘/··/˘˘·· |
| Though prayers transgress which find defect or flaw | 10 | ··˘/··˘/·· |
| In things foredoomed by Thy divine decrees, | 11 | ·······˘/˘/ |
| Yet wilt Thou modify, by slow degrees | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| Or swift, good times or bad Thy mind foresaw: | 10 | ·········/ |
| I therefore pray--I who through years have been | 10 | ·········· |
| The scorn of fools, the butt of impious men, | 11 | ·······˘/˘· |
| Suffering new pains and torments day by day-- | 10 | /˘···/···· |
| Shorten this anguish, Lord, these griefs allay; | 10 | /˘·/˘···˘/ |
| For still Thou shalt not have changed counsel when | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| I soar from hence to liberty foreseen. | 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.