Laura's Prayer
As the harp's soft sighings in the silent valley,To high heaven reaching, lifts thy pious prayer,Laura, be tranquil! again with health shall nourishThy loved companion.
O! ye gods, behold fair Laura sunk in anguish,Kneeling, O! behold her on the grassy hill,Mild evening's sportive zephyrs gently embracingHer golden ringlets.
Glist'ning with tears, her sad eyes to you she raises,Her fair bosom heaving like the swelling wave,Whilst in the solemn grove echo, clothed in darkness,Repeats her accents.
"O! gods, my friend beloved give again health's blessings,Faded are her cheeks now, dull her once bright eye,In her heart no pleasure,--killed by cruel sickness,As by heat flowers.
"But if your hard laws should bid her quit existence,Grant then my sad prayer, with her let me too die,"--Laura, be tranquil! thy friend thou'lt see revivingLike spring's sweet roses.
Words in this poem
- laura n.
- A number of hermitages or cells in the same neighborhood occupied by anchorites who were under the same superior. C. Kingsley.
- 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,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Laura's Prayer is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Bakchesarian Fountain and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #8192; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Alexander Pushkin, Laura's Prayer, in The Bakchesarian Fountain and Other Poems (1849), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8192, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/pushkin-bakchesarian/laura-s-prayer.html, id L25568.
Form and metre
Laura's Prayer is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is trochaic hexameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 81%).
See other poems in trochaic hexameter.
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.
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 hexameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| As the harp's soft sighings in the silent valley, | 12 | ····/˘··/˘/˘ |
| To high heaven reaching, lifts thy pious prayer, | 11 | ··/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Laura, be tranquil! again with health shall nourish | 12 | /˘·/˘˘/···/˘ |
| Thy loved companion. | 5 | ··˘/˘ |
| O! ye gods, behold fair Laura sunk in anguish, | 12 | ···˘/·/˘··/˘ |
| Kneeling, O! behold her on the grassy hill, | 11 | /˘·˘/···/˘· |
| Mild evening's sportive zephyrs gently embracing | 12 | ·/˘/˘/˘/˘˘/˘ |
| Her golden ringlets. | 5 | ·/˘·· |
| Glist'ning with tears, her sad eyes to you she raises, | 12 | ··········/˘ |
| Her fair bosom heaving like the swelling wave, | 11 | ··/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Whilst in the solemn grove echo, clothed in darkness, | 12 | ···/˘·/˘··/˘ |
| Repeats her accents. | 5 | ˘/·/˘ |
| "O! gods, my friend beloved give again health's blessings, | 12 | ····˘/·˘/·/˘ |
| Faded are her cheeks now, dull her once bright eye, | 11 | /˘········· |
| In her heart no pleasure,--killed by cruel sickness, | 12 | ····/˘··/˘/˘ |
| As by heat flowers. | 5 | ···/˘ |
| "But if your hard laws should bid her quit existence, | 12 | ·········˘/˘ |
| Grant then my sad prayer, with her let me too die,"-- | 11 | ··········· |
| Laura, be tranquil! thy friend thou'lt see reviving | 12 | /˘·/˘····˘/˘ |
| Like spring's sweet roses. | 5 | ···/˘ |
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.