A Prayer, Unto, Christ the Judge of the World
O Dearest, Dread, most glorious King!I'll of thy justest Judgments sing:Do thou my head and heart inspire,To Sing aright, as I desire.Thee, thee alone I'll invocate,For I do much abominateTo call the Muses to mine aid:Which is th' Unchristian use and tradeOf some that Christians would be thought,And yet they worship worse than naught.Oh! what a deal of Blasphemy,And Heathenish Impiety,In Christian Poets may be found,Where Heathen gods with praise are crown'd!They make Jehovah to stand byTill Juno, Venus, Mercury,With frowning Mars, and thund'ring Jove,Rule Earth below, and Heav'n above.But I have learn'd to pray to none,Save unto God in Christ alone.Nor will I laud, no, not in jest,That which I know God doth detest.I reckon it a damning evil,To give God's Praises to the Devil.Thou, Christ, art he to whom I pray;Thy Glory fain I would display.Oh! guide me by thy sacred Sprite,So to indite, and so to write,That I thine holy Name may praise,And teach the Sons of Men thy ways.
Words in this poem
- glorious a.
- Exhibiting attributes, qualities, or acts that are worthy of or receive glory; noble; praiseworthy; excellent; splendid; illustrious; inspiring admiration; as, glorious deeds. [OF. glorios, glorious, F. glorieux, fr. L. gloriosus. See Glory, n.]
- aright adv.
- Rightly; correctly; in a right way or form; without mistake or crime; as, to worship God aright. [Pref. a- + right.]
- invocate v. t.
- To invoke; to call on, or for, in supplication; to implore. [L. invocatus, p. p. of invocare. See Invoke.]
- abominate v. t.
- To turn from as ill-omened; to hate in the highest degree, as if with religious dread; loathe; as, to abominate all impiety. [L. abominatus, p. p. or abominari to deprecate as ominous, to abhor, to curse; ab + omen a foreboding. See Omen.]
- impiety n.
- The quality of being impious; want of piety; irreverence toward the Supreme Being; ungodliness; wickedness. [L. impietas, fr. impius impious; cf. F. impiété. See Impious, Piety.]
- jove n.
- The chief divinity of the ancient Romans; Jupiter. [L. Jupiter, gen. Jovis, OL. Jovis, nom. & gen. for Djovis; akin to E. Tuesday. See Tuesday, and cf. Jupiter.]
- jest n.
- A deed; an action; a gest. [OE. jeste, geste, deed, action, story, tale, OF. geste, LL. gesta, orig., exploits, neut. pl. from L. gestus, p. p. of gerere to bear, carry, accomplish, perfor]
- detest v. t.
- To witness against; to denounce; to condemn. [L. detestare, detestatum, and detestari, to curse while calling a deity to witness, to execrate, detest; de + testari to be a witness, testify, testis a witness]
- damning a.
- That damns; damnable; as, damning evidence of guilt.
- fain v. t.
- To be glad ; to wish or desire.
- sprite n.
- A spirit; a soul; a shade; also, an apparition. See Spright. [OE. sprit, F. esprit, fr. L. spiritus. See Spirit, and cf. Sprightly.]
- indite v. t.
- To compose; to write; to be author of; to dictate; to prompt. [OE. enditen to indite, indict, OF. enditer to indicate, show, dictate, write, inform, and endicter to accuse; both fr. LL. indictare to show, to accuse, fr. L. ]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Prayer, Unto, Christ the Judge of the World is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Day of Doom; Or, A Poetical Description of the Great and Last Judgment With Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #58716; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Michael Wigglesworth, A Prayer, Unto, Christ the Judge of the World, in The Day of Doom (1662), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #58716, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/wigglesworth-doom/a-prayer-unto-christ-the-judge-of-the-world.html, id L09213.
Form and metre
A Prayer, Unto, Christ the Judge of the World is 30 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 60% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.1 syllables. 8 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 10% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in octosyllabic couplets, 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 AA--BBCCDD--EE------FF--GGHHII kingA · singA · inspire · desire · invocateB · abominateB · aidC · tradeC · thoughtD · naughtD · blasphemy · impiety · foundE · crown'dE · by · mercury · jove · above · none · alone · jestF · detestF · evil · devil · prayG · displayG · spriteH · writeH · praiseI · waysI
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 |
|---|---|---|
| O Dearest, Dread, most glorious King! | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| I'll of thy justest Judgments sing: | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Do thou my head and heart inspire, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| To Sing aright, as I desire. | 9 | ··˘/··˘/˘ |
| Thee, thee alone I'll invocate, | 8 | ··˘/·/˘˘ |
| For I do much abominate | 8 | ····˘/˘˘ |
| To call the Muses to mine aid: | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Which is th' Unchristian use and trade | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| Of some that Christians would be thought, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And yet they worship worse than naught. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Oh! what a deal of Blasphemy, | 8 | ·····/˘˘ |
| And Heathenish Impiety, | 8 | ·/˘˘˘/˘˘ |
| In Christian Poets may be found, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Where Heathen gods with praise are crown'd! | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| They make Jehovah to stand by | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| Till Juno, Venus, Mercury, | 8 | ·/˘/˘/˘˘ |
| With frowning Mars, and thund'ring Jove, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Rule Earth below, and Heav'n above. | 8 | ········ |
| But I have learn'd to pray to none, | 8 | ········ |
| Save unto God in Christ alone. | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Nor will I laud, no, not in jest, | 8 | ········ |
| That which I know God doth detest. | 8 | ······˘/ |
| I reckon it a damning evil, | 9 | ·/˘··/˘/˘ |
| To give God's Praises to the Devil. | 9 | ···/˘··/˘ |
| Thou, Christ, art he to whom I pray; | 8 | ········ |
| Thy Glory fain I would display. | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| Oh! guide me by thy sacred Sprite, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| So to indite, and so to write, | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| That I thine holy Name may praise, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And teach the Sons of Men thy ways. | 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.