Prayer at Sunrise
O mighty, powerful, dark-dispelling sun,Now thou art risen, and thy day begun.How shrink the shrouding mists before thy face,As up thou spring'st to thy diurnal race!How darkness chases darkness to the west,As shades of light on light rise radiant from thy crest!For thee, great source of strength, emblem of might,In hours of darkest gloom there is no night.Thou shinest on though clouds hide thee from sight,And through each break thou sendest down thy light.
O greater Maker of this Thy great sun,Give me the strength this one day's race to run,Fill me with light, fill me with sun-like strength,Fill me with joy to rob the day its length.Light from within, light that will outward shine,Strength to make strong some weaker heart than mine,Joy to make glad each soul that feels its touch;Great Father of the sun, I ask this much.
Words in this poem
- shrouding n.
- The shrouds. See Shroud, n., 7.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Prayer at Sunrise is in the public domain. This text is taken from Fifty Years, & Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #17884; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: James Weldon Johnson, Prayer at Sunrise, in Fifty Years and Other Poems (1917), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17884, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/johnson-fifty-years/prayer-at-sunrise.html, id L08325.
Form and metre
Prayer at Sunrise is 18 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables.
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 AABBCCDDDD sunA · begunA · faceB · raceB · westC · crestC · mightD · nightD · sightD · lightD
- 2 AABBCCDD sunA · runA · strengthB · lengthB · shineC · mineC · touchD · muchD
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| O mighty, powerful, dark-dispelling sun, | 10 | ·/˘/˘·˘/˘· |
| Now thou art risen, and thy day begun. | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| How shrink the shrouding mists before thy face, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| As up thou spring'st to thy diurnal race! | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| How darkness chases darkness to the west, | 10 | ·/˘/˘/˘··· |
| As shades of light on light rise radiant from thy crest! | 12 | ·······/˘··· |
| For thee, great source of strength, emblem of might, | 10 | ······/˘·· |
| In hours of darkest gloom there is no night. | 10 | ·/·/˘····· |
| Thou shinest on though clouds hide thee from sight, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| And through each break thou sendest down thy light. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| O greater Maker of this Thy great sun, | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| Give me the strength this one day's race to run, | 10 | ·········· |
| Fill me with light, fill me with sun-like strength, | 10 | ·········· |
| Fill me with joy to rob the day its length. | 10 | ·········· |
| Light from within, light that will outward shine, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Strength to make strong some weaker heart than mine, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Joy to make glad each soul that feels its touch; | 10 | ·········· |
| Great Father of the sun, I ask this much. | 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.