A Prayer
Only a little, O Father, only to restOr ever the night comes and the eternal sleep,Only to rest a little, a little to weepIn the dead love's pitiful arms, on the dead love's breast,
A little to loosen the frozen fountains, to freeRivers of blood and tears that should slacken the pulseOf this pitiless heart, and appease these pangs that convulseBody and soul; oh, out of Eternity,
A moment to whisper, only a moment to tellMy dead, my dead, what words are so helpless to say--The dreams unuttered, the prayers no passion could pray,And then--the eternal sleep or the pains of hell,
I could welcome them, Father, gladly as ever a childLaying his head on the pillow might turn to his restAnd remember in dreams, as the hand of the mother is prestOn his hair, how the Pitiful blessed him of old and smiled.
Words in this poem
- convulse v. t.
- To contract violently and irregulary, as the muscular parts of an animal body; to shake with irregular spasms, as in excessive laughter, or in agony from grief or pain. [L. convulsus, p.p. of convellere to tear up, to shake; con- + vellere to pluck, pull.]
- gladly adv.
- Preferably; by choice. [From Glad, a.]
- prest a.
- Ready; prompt; prepared. [OF. prest, F. prêt, fr. L. praestus ready. Cf. Presto.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Prayer is in the public domain. This text is taken from Collected Poems: Volume One, Project Gutenberg ebook #30501; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Alfred Noyes, A Prayer, in Collected Poems, Volume One (1913), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #30501, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/noyes-collected/a-prayer.html, id L21484.
Form and metre
A Prayer is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABBA, complete in 3 of its 4 stanzas. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic trimeter.
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 ABBA restA · sleepB · weepB · breastA
- 2 -AA- free · pulseA · convulseA · eternity
- 3 ABBA tellA · sayB · prayB · hellA
- 4 ABBA childA · restB · prestB · smiledA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Only a little, O Father, only to rest | 12 | /˘·/˘·/˘/˘·· |
| Or ever the night comes and the eternal sleep, | 12 | ·/˘·····˘/˘· |
| Only to rest a little, a little to weep | 12 | /˘···/˘·/˘·· |
| In the dead love's pitiful arms, on the dead love's breast, | 12 | ····/˘······ |
| A little to loosen the frozen fountains, to free | 13 | ·/˘·/˘·/˘/˘·· |
| Rivers of blood and tears that should slacken the pulse | 12 | /˘······/˘·· |
| Of this pitiless heart, and appease these pangs that convulse | 13 | ··/˘··˘/···˘/ |
| Body and soul; oh, out of Eternity, | 11 | /˘·····˘/˘˘ |
| A moment to whisper, only a moment to tell | 13 | ·/˘·/˘/˘·/˘·· |
| My dead, my dead, what words are so helpless to say-- | 12 | ········/˘·· |
| The dreams unuttered, the prayers no passion could pray, | 12 | ········/˘·· |
| And then--the eternal sleep or the pains of hell, | 12 | ···˘/˘······ |
| I could welcome them, Father, gladly as ever a child | 13 | ··/˘·/˘/˘·/·· |
| Laying his head on the pillow might turn to his rest | 13 | /˘····/˘····· |
| And remember in dreams, as the hand of the mother is prest | 15 | ·˘/˘·······/˘·· |
| On his hair, how the Pitiful blessed him of old and smiled. | 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.