Prayer
You are all that is lovely and light,Aziza whom I adore,And, waking, after the night,I am weary with dreams of you.Every nerve in my heart is tense and soreAs I rise to another morning apart from you.
I dream of your luminous eyes,Aziza whom I adore!Of the ruffled silk of your hair,I dream, and the dreams are lies.But I love them, knowing no moreWill ever be mine of youAziza, my life's despair.
I would burn for a thousand days,Aziza whom I adore,Be tortured, slain, in unheard of waysIf you pitied the pain I bore.You pity! Your bright eyes, fastened on other things,Are keener to sting my soul, than scorpion stings!
You are all that is lovely to me,All that is light,One white rose in a Desert of weariness.I only live in the night,The night, with its fair false dreams of you,You and your loveliness.
Give me your love for a day,A night, an hour:If the wages of sin are DeathI am willing to pay.What is my life but a breathOf passion burning away?Away for an unplucked flower.O Aziza whom I adore,Aziza my one delight,Only one night, I will die before day,And trouble your life no more.
Words in this poem
- adore v. t.
- To worship with profound reverence; to pay divine honors to; to honor as deity or as divine. [OE. aouren, anouren, adoren, OF. aorer, adorer, F. adorer, fr. L. adorare; ad + orare to speak, pray, os, oris, mouth. In OE. confused with honor, the French pr]
- unheard a.
- Not heard; not perceived by the ear; as, words unheard by those present.
- keener n.
- A professional mourner who wails at a funeral. [Ireland]
- loveliness n.
- The state or quality of being lovely. [From Lovely.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Prayer is in the public domain. This text is taken from India's Love Lyrics, Project Gutenberg ebook #8197; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Laurence Hope, Prayer, in India's Love Lyrics (1901), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8197, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hope-india/prayer.html, id L22593.
Form and metre
Prayer is 36 lines in 5 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 76%).
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 ABACBC lightA · adoreB · nightA · youC · soreB · youC
- 2 ABCAB-C eyesA · adoreB · hairC · liesA · moreB · you · despairC
- 3 ABABCC daysA · adoreB · waysA · boreB · thingsC · stingsC
- 4 -ABA-B me · lightA · wearinessB · nightA · you · lovelinessB
- 5 ABCACABD-AD dayA · hourB · deathC · payA · breathC · awayA · flowerB · adoreD · delight · dayA · moreD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| You are all that is lovely and light, | 9 | ·····/˘·· |
| Aziza whom I adore, | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| And, waking, after the night, | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| I am weary with dreams of you. | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| Every nerve in my heart is tense and sore | 10 | /˘········ |
| As I rise to another morning apart from you. | 13 | ····˘/˘/˘˘/·· |
| I dream of your luminous eyes, | 8 | ····/˘˘· |
| Aziza whom I adore! | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| Of the ruffled silk of your hair, | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| I dream, and the dreams are lies. | 7 | ······· |
| But I love them, knowing no more | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| Will ever be mine of you | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| Aziza, my life's despair. | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| I would burn for a thousand days, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Aziza whom I adore, | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| Be tortured, slain, in unheard of ways | 9 | ·/˘··˘/·· |
| If you pitied the pain I bore. | 8 | ··/····· |
| You pity! Your bright eyes, fastened on other things, | 12 | ·/˘···/˘·/˘· |
| Are keener to sting my soul, than scorpion stings! | 11 | ·/˘·····/˘· |
| You are all that is lovely to me, | 9 | ·····/˘·· |
| All that is light, | 4 | ···· |
| One white rose in a Desert of weariness. | 10 | ·····˘/·/˘ |
| I only live in the night, | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| The night, with its fair false dreams of you, | 9 | ········· |
| You and your loveliness. | 6 | ···/˘˘ |
| Give me your love for a day, | 7 | ······· |
| A night, an hour: | 5 | ···/˘ |
| If the wages of sin are Death | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| I am willing to pay. | 6 | ··/˘·· |
| What is my life but a breath | 7 | ······· |
| Of passion burning away? | 7 | ·/˘/˘˘/ |
| Away for an unplucked flower. | 8 | ˘/····/˘ |
| O Aziza whom I adore, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Aziza my one delight, | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| Only one night, I will die before day, | 10 | /˘········ |
| And trouble your life no more. | 7 | ·/˘···· |
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.