A Prayer in Spring
OH, give us pleasure in the flowers to-day;And give us not to think so far awayAs the uncertain harvest; keep us hereAll simply in the springing of the year.Oh, give us pleasure in the orchard white,Like nothing else by day, like ghosts by night;And make us happy in the happy bees,The swarm dilating round the perfect trees.And make us happy in the darting birdThat suddenly above the bees is heard,The meteor that thrusts in with needle bill,And off a blossom in mid air stands still.For this is love and nothing else is love,The which it is reserved for God aboveTo sanctify to what far ends He will,But which it only needs that we fulfil.
Words in this poem
- sanctify v. t.
- To make sacred or holy; to set apart to a holy or religious use; to consecrate by appropriate rites; to hallow. [F. sanctifier, L. sanctificare; sanctus holy + - ficare (in comp.) to make. See Saint, and -fy.]
- needs adv.
- Of necessity; necessarily; indispensably; -- often with must, and equivalent to of need. [Orig. gen. of need, used as an adverb. Cf. - wards.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Prayer in Spring is in the public domain. This text is taken from A Boy's Will, Project Gutenberg ebook #3021; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Robert Frost, A Prayer in Spring, in A Boy's Will (1913), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3021, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/frost-boys-will/a-prayer-in-spring.html, id L04627.
Form and metre
A Prayer in Spring is 16 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 88% of the lines: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.9 syllables. 25% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 AABBCCDDEEFFGGF- dayA · awayA · hereB · yearB · whiteC · nightC · beesD · treesD · birdE · heardE · billF · stillF · loveG · aboveG · willF · fulfil
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 |
|---|---|---|
| OH, give us pleasure in the flowers to-day; | 10 | ···/˘··/·· |
| And give us not to think so far away | 10 | ········˘/ |
| As the uncertain harvest; keep us here | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘··· |
| All simply in the springing of the year. | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Oh, give us pleasure in the orchard white, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Like nothing else by day, like ghosts by night; | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| And make us happy in the happy bees, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| The swarm dilating round the perfect trees. | 10 | ··˘/˘··/·· |
| And make us happy in the darting bird | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| That suddenly above the bees is heard, | 10 | ·/˘˘······ |
| The meteor that thrusts in with needle bill, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| And off a blossom in mid air stands still. | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| For this is love and nothing else is love, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| The which it is reserved for God above | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| To sanctify to what far ends He will, | 10 | ·/˘˘······ |
| But which it only needs that we fulfil. | 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.