A Prayer
Until I lose my soul and lieBlind to the beauty of the earth,Deaf though shouting wind goes by,Dumb in a storm of mirth;
Until my heart is quenched at lengthAnd I have left the land of men,Oh, let me love with all my strengthCareless if I am loved again.
About this text
A Prayer is in the public domain. This text is taken from Love Songs, Project Gutenberg ebook #442; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Sara Teasdale, A Prayer, in Love Songs (1917), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #442, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/teasdale-love-songs/a-prayer.html, id L08052.
Form and metre
A Prayer is 8 lines in 2 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.6 syllables. 38% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
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 lieA · earthB · byA · mirthB
- 2 ABAB lengthA · menB · strengthA · againB
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Until I lose my soul and lie | 8 | ········ |
| Blind to the beauty of the earth, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Deaf though shouting wind goes by, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Dumb in a storm of mirth; | 6 | ······ |
| Until my heart is quenched at length | 8 | ········ |
| And I have left the land of men, | 8 | ········ |
| Oh, let me love with all my strength | 8 | ········ |
| Careless if I am loved again. | 8 | /˘····˘/ |
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.