The Soul's Answer
THAT mystic word of thine, O sovereign Lord,Is all too pure, too high, too deep for me;Weary of striving, and with longing faint,I breathe it back again in prayer to thee.
Abide in me, I pray, and I in thee;From this good hour, O, leave me nevermore;Then shall the discord cease, the wound be healed,The lifelong bleeding of the soul be o'er.
Abide in me; o'ershadow by thy loveEach half-formed purpose and dark thought of sin;Quench, e'er it rise, each selfish, low desire,And keep my soul as thine, calm and divine.
As some rare perfume in a vase of clayPervades it with a fragrance not its own,So, when thou dwellest in a mortal soul,All heaven's own sweetness seems around it thrown.
Abide in me: there have been moments blestWhen I have heard thy voice and felt thy power;Then evil lost its grasp, and passion, hushed,Owned the divine enchantment of the hour.
These were but seasons, beautiful and rare;Abide in me, and they shall ever be.Fulfil at once thy precept and my prayer,--Come, and abide in me, and I in thee.
Words in this poem
- nevermore adv.
- Never again; at no time hereafter. Testament of Love. Tyndale.
- 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,]
- lifelong a.
- Lasting or continuing through life. [Life + long. Cf. Livelong.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Soul's Answer is in the public domain. This text is taken from Religious Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #44778; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Harriet Beecher Stowe, The Soul's Answer, in Religious Poems (1867), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #44778, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/stowe-religious-poems/the-soul-s-answer.html, id L22711.
Form and metre
The Soul's Answer is 24 lines in 6 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%).
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 lord · meA · faint · theeA
- 4 -A-A clay · ownA · soul · thrownA
- 5 -A-A blest · powerA · hushed · hourA
- 6 ABAB rareA · beB · prayerA · theeB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| THAT mystic word of thine, O sovereign Lord, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Is all too pure, too high, too deep for me; | 10 | ·········· |
| Weary of striving, and with longing faint, | 10 | /˘·/˘··/˘· |
| I breathe it back again in prayer to thee. | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| Abide in me, I pray, and I in thee; | 10 | ˘/········ |
| From this good hour, O, leave me nevermore; | 10 | ···/···/˘· |
| Then shall the discord cease, the wound be healed, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| The lifelong bleeding of the soul be o'er. | 10 | ·///˘····· |
| Abide in me; o'ershadow by thy love | 10 | ˘/········ |
| Each half-formed purpose and dark thought of sin; | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Quench, e'er it rise, each selfish, low desire, | 11 | ·····/˘·˘/˘ |
| And keep my soul as thine, calm and divine. | 10 | ········˘/ |
| As some rare perfume in a vase of clay | 10 | ···˘/····· |
| Pervades it with a fragrance not its own, | 10 | ˘/···/˘··· |
| So, when thou dwellest in a mortal soul, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| All heaven's own sweetness seems around it thrown. | 11 | ·/˘·/˘····· |
| Abide in me: there have been moments blest | 10 | ˘/·····/˘· |
| When I have heard thy voice and felt thy power; | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| Then evil lost its grasp, and passion, hushed, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Owned the divine enchantment of the hour. | 11 | ··˘/˘/˘··/˘ |
| These were but seasons, beautiful and rare; | 10 | ···/˘/˘˘·· |
| Abide in me, and they shall ever be. | 10 | ˘/·····/˘· |
| Fulfil at once thy precept and my prayer,-- | 10 | ·····/···· |
| Come, and abide in me, and I in thee. | 10 | ··˘/······ |
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.