To God the Father
To the little, pitiful God I make my prayer,The God with the long grey beardAnd flowing robe fastened with a hempen girdleWho sits nodding and muttering on the all-too-big throne of Heaven.What a long, long time, dear God, since you set the stars in theirplaces,Girded the earth with the sea, and invented the day and night.And longer the time since you looked through the blue window of HeavenTo see your children at play in a garden....Now we are all stronger than you and wiser and more arrogant,In swift procession we pass you by.“Who is that marionette nodding and mutteringOn the all-too-big throne of Heaven?Come down from your place, Grey Beard,We have had enough of your play-acting!”It is centuries since I believed in you,But to-day my need of you has come back.I want no rose-coloured future,No books of learning, no protestations and denials—I am sick of this ugly scramble,I am tired of being pulled about—O God, I want to sit on your kneesOn the all-too-big throne of Heaven,And fall asleep with my hands tangled in your grey beard.
Words in this poem
- hempen a.
- Made of hemp; as, a hempen cord.
- marionette n.
- A puppet moved by strings, as in a puppet show. [F. marionette, prop. a dim. of Marie Mary.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To God the Father is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #59276; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Katherine Mansfield, To God the Father, in Poems (1923), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #59276, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/mansfield-poems/to-god-the-father.html, id L27588.
Form and metre
To God the Father is 24 lines in a single stanza.
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 AB-CA--C----CB--------CB prayerA · beardB · girdle · heavenC · theirA · places · night · heavenC · garden · arrogant · by · muttering · heavenC · beardB · acting · you · back · future · denials · scramble · about · knees · heavenC · beardB
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| To the little, pitiful God I make my prayer, | 11 | ··/˘/˘····· |
| The God with the long grey beard | 7 | ······· |
| And flowing robe fastened with a hempen girdle | 11 | ·/·/˘··/˘/˘ |
| Who sits nodding and muttering on the all-too-big throne of Heaven. | 15 | ··/˘·/˘·······/ |
| What a long, long time, dear God, since you set the stars in their | 14 | ·············· |
| places, | 2 | /˘ |
| Girded the earth with the sea, and invented the day and night. | 15 | /˘······˘/˘···· |
| And longer the time since you looked through the blue window of Heaven | 15 | ·/˘········/˘·/ |
| To see your children at play in a garden.... | 11 | ···/˘····/˘ |
| Now we are all stronger than you and wiser and more arrogant, | 14 | ····/˘···/··/˘ |
| In swift procession we pass you by. | 9 | ··˘/˘···· |
| “Who is that marionette nodding and muttering | 11 | ······/˘·/˘ |
| On the all-too-big throne of Heaven? | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| Come down from your place, Grey Beard, | 7 | ······· |
| We have had enough of your play-acting!” | 10 | ···˘/···/˘ |
| It is centuries since I believed in you, | 10 | ··/˘··˘/·· |
| But to-day my need of you has come back. | 10 | ·········· |
| I want no rose-coloured future, | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| No books of learning, no protestations and denials— | 14 | ···/˘···/˘·˘/˘ |
| I am sick of this ugly scramble, | 9 | ·····/˘/˘ |
| I am tired of being pulled about— | 8 | ··/·/··· |
| O God, I want to sit on your knees | 9 | ········· |
| On the all-too-big throne of Heaven, | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| And fall asleep with my hands tangled in your grey beard. | 13 | ··˘/···/˘···· |
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.