Hymn of Trust
O Love Divine, that stooped to shareOur sharpest pang, our bitterest tear,On Thee we cast each earth-born care,We smile at pain while Thou art near!
Though long the weary way we tread,And sorrow crown each lingering year,No path we shun, no darkness dread,Our hearts still whispering, Thou art near!
When drooping pleasure turns to grief,And trembling faith is changed to fear,The murmuring wind, the quivering leaf,Shall softly tell us, Thou art near!
On Thee we fling our burdening woe,O Love Divine, forever dear,Content to suffer while we know,Living and dying, Thou art near!
Words in this poem
- 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,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Hymn of Trust is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poetical Works of Oliver Wendell Holmes — Volume 06 Poems from the Breakfast Table Series, Project Gutenberg ebook #7393; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Oliver Wendell Holmes, Hymn of Trust, in Poems from the Breakfast-Table Series (1858), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #7393, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/holmes-breakfast-table-poems/hymn-of-trust.html, id L23572.
Form and metre
Hymn of Trust is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 3 of its 4 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%).
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 AAAA shareA · tearA · careA · nearA
- 2 ABAB treadA · yearB · dreadA · nearB
- 3 ABAB griefA · fearB · leafA · nearB
- 4 ABAB woeA · dearB · knowA · nearB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| O Love Divine, that stooped to share | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| Our sharpest pang, our bitterest tear, | 8 | //˘·//˘· |
| On Thee we cast each earth-born care, | 8 | ········ |
| We smile at pain while Thou art near! | 8 | ········ |
| Though long the weary way we tread, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And sorrow crown each lingering year, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| No path we shun, no darkness dread, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Our hearts still whispering, Thou art near! | 8 | /··/˘··· |
| When drooping pleasure turns to grief, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| And trembling faith is changed to fear, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| The murmuring wind, the quivering leaf, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Shall softly tell us, Thou art near! | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| On Thee we fling our burdening woe, | 8 | ····//˘· |
| O Love Divine, forever dear, | 8 | ··˘/˘/˘· |
| Content to suffer while we know, | 8 | ˘/·/˘··· |
| Living and dying, Thou art near! | 8 | /˘·/˘··· |
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.