Praise and Prayer
Praise is devotion fit for mighty minds,The diff’ring world’s agreeing sacrifice;Where Heaven divided faiths united finds:But Prayer in various discord upward flies.
For Prayer the ocean is where diverselyMen steer their course, each to a sev’ral coast;Where all our interests so discordant beThat half beg winds by which the rest are lost.
By Penitence when we ourselves forsake,’Tis but in wise design on piteous Heaven;In Praise we nobly give what God may take,And are, without a beggar’s blush, forgiven.
Words in this poem
- diversely adv.
- In different ways; differently; variously.
- nobly adv.
- Of noble extraction; as, nobly born or descended.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Praise and Prayer is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Oxford Book of English Verse, 1250-1900, Project Gutenberg ebook #66619; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Sir William Davenant, Praise and Prayer, in Poems (1606–1668), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66619, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/obev-sir-william-davenant/praise-and-prayer.html, id L16085.
Form and metre
Praise and Prayer is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%). 93% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.2 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 17% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 A-A- mindsA · sacrifice · findsA · flies
- 3 A-A- forsakeA · heaven · takeA · forgiven
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Praise is devotion fit for mighty minds, | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘· |
| The diff’ring world’s agreeing sacrifice; | 10 | ····˘/˘/˘· |
| Where Heaven divided faiths united finds: | 10 | ·/˘/˘·˘/˘· |
| But Prayer in various discord upward flies. | 10 | ···/˘/˘/˘· |
| For Prayer the ocean is where diversely | 10 | ···/˘··/˘˘ |
| Men steer their course, each to a sev’ral coast; | 10 | ·········· |
| Where all our interests so discordant be | 10 | ··//˘·˘/˘· |
| That half beg winds by which the rest are lost. | 10 | ·········· |
| By Penitence when we ourselves forsake, | 10 | ·/˘˘··˘/˘/ |
| ’Tis but in wise design on piteous Heaven; | 11 | ····˘/·/˘˘/ |
| In Praise we nobly give what God may take, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| And are, without a beggar’s blush, forgiven. | 11 | ·····/˘·˘/˘ |
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.