The Twenty-Third Psalm
My Shepherd is the Lord my God,--There is no want I know;His flock He leads in verdant meads,Where tranquil waters flow.
He doth restore my fainting soulWith His divine caress,And, when I stray, He points the wayTo paths of righteousness.
Yea, though I walk the vale of death,What evil shall I fear?Thy staff and rod are mine, O God,And Thou, my Shepherd, near!
Mine enemies behold the feastWhich my dear Lord hath spread;And, lo! my cup He filleth up,With oil anoints my head!
Goodness and mercy shall be mineUnto my dying day;Then will I bide at His dear sideForever and for aye!
Words in this poem
- caress n.
- An act of endearment; any act or expression of affection; an embracing, or touching, with tenderness. [F. caresse, It. carezza, LL. caritia dearness, fr. L. carus dear. See Charity.]
- righteousness n.
- The quality or state of being righteous; holiness; purity; uprightness; rectitude. [AS. rihtwisnes.]
- vale n.
- A tract of low ground, or of land between hills; a valley. [OE. val, F. val, L. vallis; perhaps akin to Gr. Avalanche, Vail to lower, Valley.]
- 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,]
- bide v. i.
- To dwell; to inhabit; to abide; to stay. [OE. biden, AS. bidan; akin to OHG. bitan, Goth. beidan, Icel. bi; perh. orig., to wait with trust, and akin to bid. See Bid, v. t., and cf. Abide.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Twenty-Third Psalm 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 Twenty-Third Psalm, in A Little Book of Western Verse (1889), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9606, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/field-western-verse/the-twenty-third-psalm.html, id L24658.
Form and metre
The Twenty-Third Psalm is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%).
See other poems in common measure.
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 -A-A god · knowA · meads · flowA
- 2 -A-A soul · caressA · way · righteousnessA
- 3 -A-A death · fearA · god · nearA
- 4 -A-A feast · spreadA · up · headA
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 common measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| My Shepherd is the Lord my God,-- | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| There is no want I know; | 6 | ······ |
| His flock He leads in verdant meads, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Where tranquil waters flow. | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| He doth restore my fainting soul | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| With His divine caress, | 6 | ··˘/˘/ |
| And, when I stray, He points the way | 8 | ········ |
| To paths of righteousness. | 6 | ···/˘˘ |
| Yea, though I walk the vale of death, | 8 | ········ |
| What evil shall I fear? | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Thy staff and rod are mine, O God, | 8 | ········ |
| And Thou, my Shepherd, near! | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Mine enemies behold the feast | 8 | ·/˘˘˘/·· |
| Which my dear Lord hath spread; | 6 | ······ |
| And, lo! my cup He filleth up, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| With oil anoints my head! | 6 | ··˘/·· |
| Goodness and mercy shall be mine | 8 | /˘·/˘··· |
| Unto my dying day; | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Then will I bide at His dear side | 8 | ········ |
| Forever and for aye! | 6 | ˘/˘··· |
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.