Prayer
When success exalts thy lot,God for thy virtue lays a plot:And all thy life is for thy own,Then for mankind's instruction shown;And though thy knees were never bent,To Heaven thy hourly prayers are sent,And whether formed for good or ill,Are registered and answered still.
I bear in youth the sad infirmitiesThat use to undo the limb and sense of age;It hath pleased Heaven to break the dream of blissWhich lit my onward way with bright presage,And my unserviceable limbs forego.The sweet delight I found in fields and farms,On windy hills, whose tops with morning glow,And lakes, smooth mirrors of Aurora's charms.Yet I think on them in the silent night,Still breaks that morn, though dim, to Memory's eye,And the firm soul does the pale train defyOf grim Disease, that would her peace affright.Please God, I'll wrap me in mine innocence,And bid each awful Muse drive the damned harpies hence.
Words in this poem
- hourly a.
- Happening or done every hour; occurring hour by hour; frequent; often repeated; renewed hour by hour; continual.
- forego v. t.
- To quit; to relinquish; to leave. [See Forgo.]
- morn n.
- The first part of the day; the morning; -- used chiefly in poetry. [OE. morwen, morgen, AS. morgen; akin to D. morgen, OS. morgan, G. morgen, Icel. morginn, morgunn, Sw. morgon, Dan. morgen, Goth. maúrgins. Cf. Morrow, Morning.]
- defy v. t.
- To renounce or dissolve all bonds of affiance, faith, or obligation with; to reject, refuse, or renounce. [F. défier, OF. deffier, desfier, LL. disfidare to disown faith or fidelity, to dissolve the bond of allegiance, as between the vassal and his lord; hence, to ch]
- damned a.
- Sentenced to punishment in a future state; condemned; consigned to perdition.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Prayer is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems Household Edition, Project Gutenberg ebook #12843; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Prayer, in Poems (1847), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12843, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/emerson-poems/prayer.html, id L07578.
Form and metre
Prayer is 22 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.1 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 14% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 AABBCCDD lotA · plotA · ownB · shownB · bentC · sentC · illD · stillD
- 2 -A-ABCBCDEEDFF infirmities · ageA · bliss · presageA · foregoB · farmsC · glowB · charmsC · nightD · eyeE · defyE · affrightD · innocenceF · henceF
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 |
|---|---|---|
| When success exalts thy lot, | 7 | ·˘/˘/·· |
| God for thy virtue lays a plot: | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And all thy life is for thy own, | 8 | ········ |
| Then for mankind's instruction shown; | 8 | ··//˘/˘· |
| And though thy knees were never bent, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| To Heaven thy hourly prayers are sent, | 8 | ·/·/˘··· |
| And whether formed for good or ill, | 8 | ········ |
| Are registered and answered still. | 8 | ·/˘˘·/˘· |
| I bear in youth the sad infirmities | 9 | ······˘/˘ |
| That use to undo the limb and sense of age; | 11 | ···˘/······ |
| It hath pleased Heaven to break the dream of bliss | 10 | ···/······ |
| Which lit my onward way with bright presage, | 10 | ···/˘···/˘ |
| And my unserviceable limbs forego. | 8 | ··˘/˘·˘/ |
| The sweet delight I found in fields and farms, | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| On windy hills, whose tops with morning glow, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| And lakes, smooth mirrors of Aurora's charms. | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘· |
| Yet I think on them in the silent night, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Still breaks that morn, though dim, to Memory's eye, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| And the firm soul does the pale train defy | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Of grim Disease, that would her peace affright. | 10 | ··˘/····˘/ |
| Please God, I'll wrap me in mine innocence, | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| And bid each awful Muse drive the damned harpies hence. | 11 | ···/˘······ |
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.