Prayer
When the last sea is sailed, when the last shallow's charted,When the last field is reaped, and the last harvest stored,When the last fire is out and the last guest departed,Grant the last prayer that I shall pray, be good to me, O Lord.
And let me pass in a night at sea, a night of storm and thunder,In the loud crying of the wind through sail and rope and spar,Send me a ninth great peaceful wave to drown and roll me underTo the cold tunny-fish's home where the drowned galleons are.
And in the dim green quiet place far out of sight and hearing,Grant I may hear at whiles the wash and thresh of the sea-foamAbout the fine keen bows of the stately clippers steeringTowards the lone northern star and the fair ports of home.
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,]
- whiles conj.
- During the time that; while. Chaucer. Fuller.
- thresh v. t.
- To beat out grain from, as straw or husks; to beat the straw or husk of (grain) with a flail; to beat off, as the kernels of grain; as, to thrash wheat, rye, or oats; to thrash over the old straw. [OE. , , to beat, AS. , ; akin to D. dorschen, OD. derschen, G. dreschen, OHG. dreskan, Icel. , Sw. tröska, Dan. tærske, Goth. , Lith. traszketi to rattle, Russ.]
- lone n.
- A lane. See Loanin.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Prayer is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Story of a Round-House, and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #40717; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: John Masefield, Prayer, in The Story of a Round-House, and Other Poems (1912), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #40717, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/masefield-round-house/prayer.html, id L25000.
Form and metre
Prayer is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is trochaic heptameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 70%).
See other poems in trochaic heptameter.
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 chartedA · storedB · departedA · lordB
- 2 ABAB thunderA · sparB · underA · areB
- 3 ABAB hearingA · foamB · steeringA · homeB
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 heptameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| When the last sea is sailed, when the last shallow's charted, | 14 | ······˘···/˘/˘ |
| When the last field is reaped, and the last harvest stored, | 14 | ······˘···/˘·˘ |
| When the last fire is out and the last guest departed, | 14 | ···/˘······˘/˘ |
| Grant the last prayer that I shall pray, be good to me, O Lord. | 14 | ·············· |
| And let me pass in a night at sea, a night of storm and thunder, | 16 | ··············/˘ |
| In the loud crying of the wind through sail and rope and spar, | 14 | ···/˘········· |
| Send me a ninth great peaceful wave to drown and roll me under | 15 | ·····/˘········ |
| To the cold tunny-fish's home where the drowned galleons are. | 14 | ···/˘/˘····/˘· |
| And in the dim green quiet place far out of sight and hearing, | 15 | ·····/˘······/˘ |
| Grant I may hear at whiles the wash and thresh of the sea-foam | 14 | ·············· |
| About the fine keen bows of the stately clippers steering | 14 | ········/˘/˘/˘ |
| Towards the lone northern star and the fair ports of home. | 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.