Analysis of A Prayer
John Charles McNeill 1874 – 1907
If many years should dim my inward sight,
Till, stirred with no emotion,
I might stand gazing at the fall of night
Across the gloaming ocean;
Till storm, and sun, and night, vast with her stars,
Would seem an oft-told story,
And the old sorrow of heroic wars
Be faded of its glory;
Till, hearing, while June's roses blew their musk,
The noise of field and city,
The human struggle, sinking tired at dusk,
I felt no thrill of pity;
Till dawn should come without her old desire,
And day brood o'er her stages,--
O let me die, too frail for nature's hire,
And rest a million ages.
Scheme | ABAB XCXC DCDC EFEF |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain |
Metre | 1101111101 1111010 1111010111 0101010 1101011101 1111110 0011010101 1101110 1101110111 0111010 01010101011 1111110 11110101010 01110010 11111111010 0101010 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 573 |
Words | 112 |
Sentences | 2 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 16 |
Letters per line (avg) | 28 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 111 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 27 |
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Submitted on August 03, 2020
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 34 sec read
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"A Prayer" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 2 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/55847/a-prayer>.
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