From the Same. To the Supreme Being
The prayers I make will then be sweet indeedIf Thou the spirit give by which I pray:My unassisted heart is barren clay,That of its native self can nothing feed:Of good and pious works thou art the seed,That quickens only where thou say'st it may.Unless Thou shew to us thine own true wayNo man can find it: Father! Thou must lead.Do Thou, then, breathe those thoughts into my mindBy which such virtue may in me be bredThat in thy holy footsteps I may tread;The fetters of my tongue do Thou unbind,That I may have the power to sing of thee,And sound thy praises everlastingly.
Words in this poem
- shew n.
- Show. [Obs. except in shewbread.]
- everlastingly adv.
- In an everlasting manner.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
From the Same. To the Supreme Being is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth — Volume 3 (of 8), Project Gutenberg ebook #12383; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: William Wordsworth, From the Same. To the Supreme Being, in The Prelude, and Other Poems (1802–1815), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12383, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/wordsworth-vol3/from-the-same-to-the-supreme-being.html, id L17449.
Form and metre
From the Same. To the Supreme Being is 14 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 57% of the lines: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%).
See other poems in heroic couplets, 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 ABBAABBACDDC-- indeedA · prayB · clayB · feedA · seedA · mayB · wayB · leadA · mindC · bredD · treadD · unbindC · thee · everlastingly
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 |
|---|---|---|
| The prayers I make will then be sweet indeed | 10 | ········˘/ |
| If Thou the spirit give by which I pray: | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| My unassisted heart is barren clay, | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘· |
| That of its native self can nothing feed: | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Of good and pious works thou art the seed, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| That quickens only where thou say'st it may. | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| Unless Thou shew to us thine own true way | 10 | ·········· |
| No man can find it: Father! Thou must lead. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Do Thou, then, breathe those thoughts into my mind | 10 | ·········· |
| By which such virtue may in me be bred | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| That in thy holy footsteps I may tread; | 10 | ···/˘/···· |
| The fetters of my tongue do Thou unbind, | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| That I may have the power to sing of thee, | 10 | ·····/···· |
| And sound thy praises everlastingly. | 10 | ···/˘····· |
On this poem
Notes from the edition 2
William Knight's notes to The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth, Volume 3 (1896; Project Gutenberg #12383): Wordsworth's own Isabella Fenwick notes and Knight's headnotes on composition and publication, plus his lettered footnotes (restarting at A for every poem/book; Book First of The Prelude runs past Z into lowercase a, b, c...).
- Line 4 1827. Which ... 1807.
- Line 6 1827. Which ... 1807.
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.