The Prayer of Miriam Cohen
From the wheel and the drift of ThingsDeliver us, Good Lord,And we will face the wrath of Kings,The faggot and the sword!
Lay not Thy Works before our eyes,Nor vex us with Thy Wars,Lest we should feel the straining skiesO'ertrod by trampling stars.
Hold us secure behind the gatesOf saving flesh and bone,Lest we should dream what dream awaitsThe soul escaped alone.
Thy Path, Thy Purposes concealFrom our beleaguered realm,Lest any shattering whisper stealUpon us and o'erwhelm.
A veil 'twixt us and Thee, Good Lord,A veil 'twixt us and Thee,Lest we should hear too clear, too clear,And unto madness see!
About this text
The Prayer of Miriam Cohen is in the public domain. This text is taken from Songs from Books, Project Gutenberg ebook #15529; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Rudyard Kipling, The Prayer of Miriam Cohen, in Songs from Books (1912), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #15529, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/kipling-songs-from-books/the-prayer-of-miriam-cohen.html, id L20388.
Form and metre
The Prayer of Miriam Cohen is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 3 of its 5 stanzas. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%).
See other poems in common 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 ABAB thingsA · lordB · kingsA · swordB
- 2 A-A- eyesA · wars · skiesA · stars
- 3 ABAB gatesA · boneB · awaitsA · aloneB
- 4 ABAB concealA · realmB · stealA · o'erwhelmB
- 5 -A-A lord · theeA · clear · seeA
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 common measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| From the wheel and the drift of Things | 8 | ········ |
| Deliver us, Good Lord, | 6 | ˘/˘··· |
| And we will face the wrath of Kings, | 8 | ········ |
| The faggot and the sword! | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Lay not Thy Works before our eyes, | 8 | ······/· |
| Nor vex us with Thy Wars, | 6 | ······ |
| Lest we should feel the straining skies | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| O'ertrod by trampling stars. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Hold us secure behind the gates | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| Of saving flesh and bone, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Lest we should dream what dream awaits | 8 | ······˘/ |
| The soul escaped alone. | 6 | ··˘/˘/ |
| Thy Path, Thy Purposes conceal | 8 | ···/˘˘˘/ |
| From our beleaguered realm, | 7 | ·/˘˘/˘· |
| Lest any shattering whisper steal | 8 | ·/˘/˘/˘· |
| Upon us and o'erwhelm. | 6 | ······ |
| A veil 'twixt us and Thee, Good Lord, | 8 | ········ |
| A veil 'twixt us and Thee, | 6 | ······ |
| Lest we should hear too clear, too clear, | 8 | ········ |
| And unto madness see! | 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.