Teach Me, o Trinity
Teach me, O Trinity,All men sing praise to Thee,Let me not backward be,Teach me, O Trinity.
Come Thou and dwell with me,Lord of the holy race;Make here thy resting-place,Hear me, O Trinity.
That I Thy love may prove,Teach Thou my heart and hand,Ever at Thy commandSwiftly to move.
Like to a rotting treeIs this vile heart of me;Let me Thy healing see,Help me, O Trinity.
Sinful, beholding Thee;Yet clean from theft and bloodMy hands; O Son of God,For Mary's love, answer me.
In my adversityNo great man stooped to me,No good man pitied me,God ope'd His heart to me.
Lied I, as others lie,They deceived, so have I,On others' lie I built my lie--Will my God pass this by?
Truth art Thou, truth I crave,If on a lie I rest, I'm lost;My vow demands my uttermost;Save, Trinity, O save!
Words in this poem
- dwell v. i.
- To delay; to linger. [OE. dwellen, dwelien, to err, linger, AS. dwellan to deceive, hinder, delay, dwelian to err; akin to Icel. dvelja to delay, tarry, Sw. dväljas to dwell, Dan. dv]
- beholding a.
- Obliged; beholden.
- adversity n.
- Opposition; contrariety. Wyclif. [OE. adversite, F. adversité, fr. L. adversitas.]
- lied n.
- A lay; a German song. It differs from the French chanson, and the Italian canzone, all three being national. [G.]
- crave v. t.
- To ask with earnestness or importunity; to ask with submission or humility; to beg; to entreat; to beseech; to implore. [AS. crafian; akin to Icel. krefia, Sw. kr, Dan. kr.]
- uttermost a.
- Extreme; utmost; being; in the farthest, greatest, or highest degree; as, the uttermost extent or end. [From Utter, a.; cf. Utmost, and Outermost.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Teach Me, o Trinity 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, Teach Me, o Trinity, in The Poem-Book of the Gael (1912), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #46917, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hull-gael/teach-me-o-trinity.html, id L11708.
Form and metre
Teach Me, o Trinity is 32 lines in 8 stanzas of 4 lines each. It is in rhyming couplets, 50% of the lines. The metre is short measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 82%). 89% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.2 syllables. 6 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 12% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in rhyming couplets, other poems in short measure.
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 ABBA trinityA · theeB · beB · trinityA
- 2 -AA- me · raceA · placeA · trinity
- 3 ABBA proveA · handB · commandB · moveA
- 4 AAA- treeA · meA · seeA · trinity
- 5 A--A theeA · blood · god · meA
- 6 -AAA adversity · meA · meA · meA
- 7 AAAA lieA · iA · lieA · byA
- 8 ABBA craveA · lostB · uttermostB · saveA
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 short measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Teach me, O Trinity, | 6 | ···/˘˘ |
| All men sing praise to Thee, | 6 | ······ |
| Let me not backward be, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Teach me, O Trinity. | 6 | ···/˘˘ |
| Come Thou and dwell with me, | 6 | ······ |
| Lord of the holy race; | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Make here thy resting-place, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Hear me, O Trinity. | 6 | ···/˘˘ |
| That I Thy love may prove, | 6 | ······ |
| Teach Thou my heart and hand, | 6 | ······ |
| Ever at Thy command | 6 | /˘··˘/ |
| Swiftly to move. | 4 | /˘·· |
| Like to a rotting tree | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Is this vile heart of me; | 6 | ······ |
| Let me Thy healing see, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Help me, O Trinity. | 6 | ···/˘˘ |
| Sinful, beholding Thee; | 6 | /˘˘/˘· |
| Yet clean from theft and blood | 6 | ······ |
| My hands; O Son of God, | 6 | ······ |
| For Mary's love, answer me. | 7 | ·/˘·/˘· |
| In my adversity | 6 | ··˘/˘˘ |
| No great man stooped to me, | 7 | ····˘·· |
| No good man pitied me, | 6 | ···/·· |
| God ope'd His heart to me. | 6 | ······ |
| Lied I, as others lie, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| They deceived, so have I, | 7 | ·˘/˘··· |
| On others' lie I built my lie-- | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Will my God pass this by? | 6 | ······ |
| Truth art Thou, truth I crave, | 6 | ······ |
| If on a lie I rest, I'm lost; | 8 | ········ |
| My vow demands my uttermost; | 8 | ··˘/·/˘˘ |
| Save, Trinity, O save! | 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.