Prayer: After King David
I shall be satisfiedWith the seeing of thy face.When I awake, wide-eyed,I shall be satisfiedWith what this life did hide,The one supernal grace!I shall be satisfiedWith the seeing of thy face.
Words in this poem
- 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,]
- supernal a.
- Being in a higher place or region; locally higher; as, the supernal orbs; supernal regions. [L. supernus, from super above: cf. F. supernel. See Super-.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Prayer: After King David 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, Prayer: After King David, in A Microcosm in Terza Rima, and Other Poems (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9984, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/macdonald-poems/prayer-after-king-david.html, id L22508.
Form and metre
Prayer: After King David is 8 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABAAABAB. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%).
See other poems in iambic trimeter.
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 ABAAABAB satisfiedA · faceB · eyedA · satisfiedA · hideA · graceB · satisfiedA · faceB
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| I shall be satisfied | 6 | ···/˘· |
| With the seeing of thy face. | 6 | ··/··· |
| When I awake, wide-eyed, | 6 | ··˘/·· |
| I shall be satisfied | 6 | ···/˘· |
| With what this life did hide, | 6 | ······ |
| The one supernal grace! | 6 | ··˘/˘· |
| I shall be satisfied | 6 | ···/˘· |
| With the seeing of thy face. | 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.