Before Communion
O Saviour, who lightest the sun's blessed ray,Remit my offences, this day and alway,Above my deserving, or all I could pay;Then with joy I receive my Redeemer to-day.
Words in this poem
- saviour n.
- One who saves, preserves, or delivers from destruction or danger. [OE. saveour, OF. salveor, F. sauveur, fr. L. salvator to save. See Save, v.]
- remit v. t.
- To send back; to give up; to surrender; to resign. [L. remittere, remissum, to send back, to slacken, relax; pref. re- re- + mittere to send. See Mission, and cf. Remise, Remiss.]
- redeemer n.
- One who redeems.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Before Communion 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, Before Communion, in The Poem-Book of the Gael (1912), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #46917, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hull-gael/before-communion.html, id L11753.
Form and metre
Before Communion is 4 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 50% of the lines. The lines average 11.0 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
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 A-AA rayA · alway · payA · dayA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| O Saviour, who lightest the sun's blessed ray, | 10 | ·/˘·/˘···· |
| Remit my offences, this day and alway, | 11 | ˘/·······/˘ |
| Above my deserving, or all I could pay; | 11 | ···˘/˘····· |
| Then with joy I receive my Redeemer to-day. | 12 | ····˘/·˘/˘·· |
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.