Analysis of Our Prayer of Thanks

Carl Sandburg 1878 (Galesburg) – 1967 (Flat Rock)



For the gladness here where the sun is shining at evening on the weeds at the river,
Our prayer of thanks.

For the laughter of children who tumble barefooted and bareheaded in the summer grass,
Our prayer of thanks.

For the sunset and the stars, the women and the white arms that hold us,
Our prayer of thanks.

God,
If you are deaf and blind, if this is all lost to you,
God, if the dead in their coffins amid the silver handles on the edge of town, or the reckless dead of war days thrown unknown in pits, if these dead are forever deaf and blind and lost,
Our prayer of thanks.

God,
The game is all your way, the secrets and the signals and the system; and so for the break of the game and the first play and the last.
Our prayer of thanks.


Scheme xA bA xA CxxA CbA
Poetic Form
Metre 10111011101101011010 10111 101011011010100101 10111 1010010100011111 10111 1 1111011111111 110101100101010101111010111110101111101010101 10111 1 01111101000100010011011010011001 10111
Closest metre Iambic heptameter
Characters 748
Words 149
Sentences 7
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 2, 2, 2, 4, 3
Lines Amount 13
Letters per line (avg) 44
Words per line (avg) 11
Letters per stanza (avg) 115
Words per stanza (avg) 29
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 09, 2023

44 sec read
86

Carl Sandburg

Carl Sandburg was an American writer and editor best known for poetry. more…

All Carl Sandburg poems | Carl Sandburg Books

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