Love's Prayer
If Heaven would hear my prayer,My dearest wish would be,Thy sorrows not to share,But take them all on me;If Heaven would hear my prayer.
I'd beg with prayers and sighsThat never a tear might flowFrom out thy lovely eyes,If Heaven might grant it so;Mine be the tears and sighs.
No cloud thy brow should cover,But smiles each other chaseFrom lips to eyes all overThy sweet and sunny face;The clouds my heart should cover.
That all thy path be lightLet darkness fall on me;If all thy days be bright,Mine black as night could be.My love would light my night.
For thou art more than life,And if our fate should setLife and my love at strife,How could I then forgetI love thee more than life?
Words in this poem
- sunny a.
- Of or pertaining to the sun; proceeding from, or resembling the sun; hence, shining; bright; brilliant; radiant.
- strife n.
- The act of striving; earnest endeavor. [OF. estrif. See Strive.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Love's Prayer is in the public domain. This text is taken from Pike County Ballads and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #6062; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: John Hay, Love's Prayer, in Pike County Ballads and Other Poems (1871), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #6062, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hay-pike-county/love-s-prayer.html, id L21596.
Form and metre
Love's Prayer is 25 lines in 5 stanzas of 5 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABABA, complete in 4 of its 5 stanzas. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 96%).
See other poems in iambic trimeter.
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 ABABA prayerA · beB · shareA · meB · prayerA
- 2 ABABA sighsA · flowB · eyesA · soB · sighsA
- 3 AB-BA coverA · chaseB · over · faceB · coverA
- 4 ABABA lightA · meB · brightA · beB · nightA
- 5 ABABA lifeA · setB · strifeA · forgetB · lifeA
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| If Heaven would hear my prayer, | 6 | ·/···· |
| My dearest wish would be, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Thy sorrows not to share, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| But take them all on me; | 6 | ······ |
| If Heaven would hear my prayer. | 6 | ·/···· |
| I'd beg with prayers and sighs | 6 | ······ |
| That never a tear might flow | 6 | ·/···· |
| From out thy lovely eyes, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| If Heaven might grant it so; | 6 | ·/···· |
| Mine be the tears and sighs. | 6 | ······ |
| No cloud thy brow should cover, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| But smiles each other chase | 6 | ···/˘· |
| From lips to eyes all over | 6 | ······ |
| Thy sweet and sunny face; | 6 | ···/˘· |
| The clouds my heart should cover. | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| That all thy path be light | 6 | ······ |
| Let darkness fall on me; | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| If all thy days be bright, | 6 | ······ |
| Mine black as night could be. | 6 | ······ |
| My love would light my night. | 6 | ······ |
| For thou art more than life, | 6 | ······ |
| And if our fate should set | 6 | ··/··· |
| Life and my love at strife, | 6 | ······ |
| How could I then forget | 6 | ····˘/ |
| I love thee more than life? | 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.