The Bibliomaniac's Prayer
Keep me, I pray, in wisdom's wayThat I may truths eternal seek;I need protecting care to-day,--My purse is light, my flesh is weak.So banish from my erring heartAll baleful appetites and hintsOf Satan's fascinating art,Of first editions, and of prints.Direct me in some godly walkWhich leads away from bookish strife,That I with pious deed and talkMay extra-illustrate my life.
But if, O Lord, it pleaseth TheeTo keep me in temptation's way,I humbly ask that I may beMost notably beset to-day;Let my temptation be a book,Which I shall purchase, hold, and keep,Whereon when other men shall look,They'll wail to know I got it cheap.Oh, let it such a volume beAs in rare copperplates abounds,Large paper, clean, and fair to see,Uncut, unique, unknown to Lowndes.
Words in this poem
- bookish a.
- Given to reading; fond of study; better acquainted with books than with men; learned from books.
- strife n.
- The act of striving; earnest endeavor. [OF. estrif. See Strive.]
- humbly adv.
- With humility; lowly.
- notably adv.
- In a notable manner.
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- whereon adv.
- On which; -- used relatively; as, the earth whereon we live.
- uncut a.
- Not cut; not separated or divided by cutting or otherwise; -- said especially of books, periodicals, and the like, when the leaves have not been separated by trimming in binding.
- unique a.
- Being without a like or equal; unmatched; unequaled; unparalleled; single in kind or excellence; sole. [F. unique; cf. It. unico; from L. unicus, from unus one. See One.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Bibliomaniac's Prayer is in the public domain. This text is taken from A Little Book of Western Verse, Project Gutenberg ebook #9606; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Eugene Field, The Bibliomaniac's Prayer, in A Little Book of Western Verse (1889), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9606, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/field-western-verse/the-bibliomaniac-s-prayer.html, id L24625.
Form and metre
The Bibliomaniac's Prayer is 24 lines in 2 stanzas of 12 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 95%).
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
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 ABABCDCDEFEF wayA · seekB · dayA · weakB · heartC · hintsD · artC · printsD · walkE · strifeF · talkE · lifeF
- 2 ABABCDCDA-A- theeA · wayB · beA · dayB · bookC · keepD · lookC · cheapD · beA · abounds · seeA · lowndes
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Keep me, I pray, in wisdom's way | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| That I may truths eternal seek; | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| I need protecting care to-day,-- | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| My purse is light, my flesh is weak. | 8 | ········ |
| So banish from my erring heart | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| All baleful appetites and hints | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Of Satan's fascinating art, | 8 | ·/˘/˘·˘· |
| Of first editions, and of prints. | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| Direct me in some godly walk | 8 | ˘/···/˘· |
| Which leads away from bookish strife, | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| That I with pious deed and talk | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| May extra-illustrate my life. | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| But if, O Lord, it pleaseth Thee | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| To keep me in temptation's way, | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| I humbly ask that I may be | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Most notably beset to-day; | 8 | ·/˘˘˘/·· |
| Let my temptation be a book, | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| Which I shall purchase, hold, and keep, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Whereon when other men shall look, | 8 | ˘/·/˘··· |
| They'll wail to know I got it cheap. | 8 | ········ |
| Oh, let it such a volume be | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| As in rare copperplates abounds, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Large paper, clean, and fair to see, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Uncut, unique, unknown to Lowndes. | 9 | ·/˘/˘/·/˘ |
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.