My Prayer
Great God, I ask thee for no meaner pelfThan that I may not disappoint myself;That in my action I may soar as highAs I can now discern with this clear eye.
And next in value, which thy kindness lends,That I may greatly disappoint my friends,Howe’er they think or hope that it may be,They may not dream how thou’st distinguished me.
That my weak hand may equal my firm faith,And my life practise more than my tongue saith;That my low conduct may not show,Nor my relenting lines,That I thy purpose did not know,Or overrated thy designs.
Printed by T. and A. CONSTABLE, Printers to Her Majesty at the EdinburghUniversity Press
Words in this poem
- pelf n.
- Money; riches; lucre; gain; -- generally conveying the idea of something ill-gotten or worthless. It has no plural. [OE. pelfir booty, OF. pelfre, akin to pelfrer to plunder, and perh. to E. pillage. Cf. Pilfer.]
- saith
- 3d pers. sing. pres. of Say.
- university n.
- The universe; the whole. Dr. H. More. [OE. universite, L. universitas all together, the whole, the universe, a number of persons associated into one body, a society, corporation, fr. universus all to]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
My Prayer is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems of Nature, Project Gutenberg ebook #59988; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Henry David Thoreau, My Prayer, in Poems of Nature (1895), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #59988, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/thoreau-poems/my-prayer.html, id L02841.
Form and metre
My Prayer is 16 lines in 4 stanzas. The rhyme scheme is AABB, complete in 2 of its 4 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.6 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 25% 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 AABB pelfA · myselfA · highB · eyeB
- 2 AABB lendsA · friendsA · beB · meB
- 3 AABCBC faithA · saithA · showB · linesC · knowB · designsC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Great God, I ask thee for no meaner pelf | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Than that I may not disappoint myself; | 10 | ······˘/·/ |
| That in my action I may soar as high | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| As I can now discern with this clear eye. | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| And next in value, which thy kindness lends, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| That I may greatly disappoint my friends, | 10 | ···/˘·˘/·· |
| Howe’er they think or hope that it may be, | 10 | ·········· |
| They may not dream how thou’st distinguished me. | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| That my weak hand may equal my firm faith, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| And my life practise more than my tongue saith; | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| That my low conduct may not show, | 8 | ···˘/··· |
| Nor my relenting lines, | 6 | ··˘/˘· |
| That I thy purpose did not know, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Or overrated thy designs. | 8 | ··˘/˘·˘/ |
| Printed by T. and A. CONSTABLE, Printers to Her Majesty at the Edinburgh | 18 | /˘····/˘/˘··/˘··/˘ |
| University Press | 6 | ·˘/˘˘· |
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.