A Prayer
Teach me, Father, how to goSoftly as the grasses grow;Hush my soul to meet the shockOf the wild world as a rock;But my spirit, propt with power,Make as simple as a flower.Let the dry heart fill its cup,Like a poppy looking up;Let life lightly wear her crown,Like a poppy looking down,When its heart is filled with dew,And its life begins anew.
Teach me, Father, how to beKind and patient as a tree.Joyfully the crickets croonUnder shady oak at noon;Beetle, on his mission bent,Tarries in that cooling tent.Let me, also, cheer a spot,Hidden field or garden grot--Place where passing souls can restOn the way and be their best.
Words in this poem
- croon v. i.
- To make a continuous hollow moan, as cattle do when in pain.
- cooling a.
- Adapted to cool and refresh; allaying heat.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Prayer is in the public domain. This text is taken from The man with the hoe, and other poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #67012; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Edwin Markham, A Prayer, in The Man with the Hoe, and Other Poems (1899), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #67012, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/markham-man-with-hoe/a-prayer.html, id L24742.
Form and metre
A Prayer is 22 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%).
See other poems in trochaic tetrameter.
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 AABBCCDDEEFF goA · growA · shockB · rockB · powerC · flowerC · cupD · upD · crownE · downE · dewF · anewF
- 2 AABBCC--DD beA · treeA · croonB · noonB · bentC · tentC · spot · grot · restD · bestD
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 trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Teach me, Father, how to go | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Softly as the grasses grow; | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| Hush my soul to meet the shock | 7 | ······· |
| Of the wild world as a rock; | 7 | ······· |
| But my spirit, propt with power, | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| Make as simple as a flower. | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| Let the dry heart fill its cup, | 7 | ······· |
| Like a poppy looking up; | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| Let life lightly wear her crown, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Like a poppy looking down, | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| When its heart is filled with dew, | 7 | ······· |
| And its life begins anew. | 7 | ···˘/˘/ |
| Teach me, Father, how to be | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Kind and patient as a tree. | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Joyfully the crickets croon | 7 | /˘˘·/˘· |
| Under shady oak at noon; | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Beetle, on his mission bent, | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| Tarries in that cooling tent. | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| Let me, also, cheer a spot, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Hidden field or garden grot-- | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| Place where passing souls can rest | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| On the way and be their best. | 7 | ······· |
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.