An Evening Prayer
I am a bubbleUpon thy ever-moving, resting sea:Oh, rest me now from tossing, trespass, trouble!Take me down into thee.
Give me thy peace.My heart is aching with unquietness:Oh, make its inharmonious beating cease!Thy hand upon it press.
My Night! my Day!Swift night and day betwixt, my world doth reel:Potter, take not thy hand from off the clayThat whirls upon thy wheel.
O Heart, I cryFor love and life, pardon and hope and strength!O Father, I am thine; I shall not die,But I shall sleep at length!
Words in this poem
- aching a.
- That aches; continuously painful. See Ache.
- betwixt prep.
- In the space which separates; between. [OE. betwix, bitwix, rarely bitwixt, AS. betweox, betweohs, betweoh, betwih; pref. be- by + a form fr. AS. twa two. See Between.]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
An Evening Prayer is in the public domain. This text is taken from The poetical works of George MacDonald in two volumes — Volume 2, Project Gutenberg ebook #9984; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: George MacDonald, An Evening Prayer, in A Microcosm in Terza Rima, and Other Poems (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9984, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/macdonald-poems/an-evening-prayer.html, id L22501.
Form and metre
An Evening Prayer is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 95%).
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 ABAB bubbleA · seaB · troubleA · theeB
- 2 ABAB peaceA · unquietnessB · ceaseA · pressB
- 3 ABAB dayA · reelB · clayA · wheelB
- 4 ABAB cryA · strengthB · dieA · lengthB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I am a bubble | 5 | ···/˘ |
| Upon thy ever-moving, resting sea: | 10 | ···/˘/˘/˘· |
| Oh, rest me now from tossing, trespass, trouble! | 11 | ·····/˘/·/˘ |
| Take me down into thee. | 6 | ······ |
| Give me thy peace. | 4 | ···· |
| My heart is aching with unquietness: | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| Oh, make its inharmonious beating cease! | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Thy hand upon it press. | 6 | ······ |
| My Night! my Day! | 4 | ···· |
| Swift night and day betwixt, my world doth reel: | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| Potter, take not thy hand from off the clay | 10 | /˘········ |
| That whirls upon thy wheel. | 6 | ······ |
| O Heart, I cry | 4 | ···· |
| For love and life, pardon and hope and strength! | 10 | ····/˘···· |
| O Father, I am thine; I shall not die, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| But I shall sleep at length! | 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.