A Prayer
Be Thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart,Naught is all else to me, save that Thou art.
Thou my best thought by day and by night,Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.
Be Thou my Wisdom, Thou my true Word;I ever with Thee, Thou with me, Lord.
Thou my great Father, I thy dear son;Thou in me dwelling, I with Thee one.
Be Thou my battle-shield, sword for the fight,Be Thou my dignity, Thou my delight.
Thou my soul's shelter, Thou my high tower;Raise Thou me heavenward, Power of my power.
Riches I heed not or man's empty praise,Thou mine inheritance now and always.
Thou, and Thou only, first in my heart,High King of Heaven, my treasure Thou art.
King of the seven heavens, grant me for dole,Thy love in my heart, Thy light in my soul.
Thy light from my soul, Thy love from my heart,King of the seven heavens, may they never depart.
With the High King of heaven, after victory won,May I reach heaven's joys, O Bright heaven's Sun!
Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,Still be my Vision, O Ruler of all.
Words in this poem
- depart v. i.
- To part; to divide; to separate. [OE. departen to divide, part, depart, F. départir to divide, distribute, se départir to separate one's self, depart; pref. dé- (L. de) + partir to part, depart,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Prayer is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poem-Book of the Gael Translations from Irish Gaelic Poetry into English Prose and Verse, Project Gutenberg ebook #46917; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Eleanor Hull, A Prayer, in The Poem-Book of the Gael (1912), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #46917, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hull-gael/a-prayer.html, id L11691.
Form and metre
A Prayer is 24 lines in 12 stanzas of 2 lines each. It is in rhyming couplets, 92% of the lines. 82% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.7 syllables.
See other poems in rhyming couplets.
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 AA heartA · artA
- 2 AA nightA · lightA
- 4 AA sonA · oneA
- 5 AA fightA · delightA
- 6 AA towerA · powerA
- 7 AA praiseA · alwaysA
- 8 AA heartA · artA
- 9 AA doleA · soulA
- 10 AA heartA · departA
- 11 AA wonA · sunA
- 12 AA befallA · allA
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Be Thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Naught is all else to me, save that Thou art. | 10 | ·········· |
| Thou my best thought by day and by night, | 9 | ········· |
| Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light. | 10 | /˘·/˘·/˘·· |
| Be Thou my Wisdom, Thou my true Word; | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| I ever with Thee, Thou with me, Lord. | 8 | ·/······ |
| Thou my great Father, I thy dear son; | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| Thou in me dwelling, I with Thee one. | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| Be Thou my battle-shield, sword for the fight, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Be Thou my dignity, Thou my delight. | 9 | ···/˘··˘/ |
| Thou my soul's shelter, Thou my high tower; | 9 | ···/˘···/ |
| Raise Thou me heavenward, Power of my power. | 10 | ···/˘˘/··/ |
| Riches I heed not or man's empty praise, | 10 | /˘·····/˘· |
| Thou mine inheritance now and always. | 9 | ··˘/˘··/· |
| Thou, and Thou only, first in my heart, | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| High King of Heaven, my treasure Thou art. | 9 | ···/·/˘·· |
| King of the seven heavens, grant me for dole, | 10 | ···//˘···· |
| Thy love in my heart, Thy light in my soul. | 10 | ·········· |
| Thy light from my soul, Thy love from my heart, | 10 | ·········· |
| King of the seven heavens, may they never depart. | 11 | ···//˘··/˘/ |
| With the High King of heaven, after victory won, | 11 | ·····/··/˘· |
| May I reach heaven's joys, O Bright heaven's Sun! | 11 | ···/˘···/˘· |
| Heart of my own heart, whatever befall, | 10 | ······/˘˘/ |
| Still be my Vision, O Ruler of all. | 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.