Analysis of Prayer to the Rain God



Oh, hard rain that drums on the tin eaves,
Smacks the blacktop with nonstop splattering,
Raps the window glass with each wind gust,
And spouts out the drain pipe an artesian spring;
Oh, anti-liturgical benediction;
Oh, rampant and wanton redemption;
Oh, most holy gully-washer and moisture-laden westerly offshore flow:

Make frothing brooks in the dry ditches
And roiling creek beds out of rock-strewn arroyos;
Swell the stream to a leaping, swirling, dusky rush,
And let it billow out a silt cloud into the big river.
Drench all desire and longing,
All pleasure and depression,
All scheming and regret,
Be they solitary leaf or uprooted tree,
And, in the wild ebullient overflow,
Sweep them out to sea.


Scheme ABXBCCD XAXXBCXEDE
Poetic Form
Metre 111111011 101111 101011111 0110111101 1100100010 110010010 1110101001010100111 11100110 0101111111 10110101011 011101011010110 11010010 1100010 110001 11100110101 000101010 11111
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 687
Words 116
Sentences 2
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 7, 10
Lines Amount 17
Letters per line (avg) 33
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 281
Words per stanza (avg) 58
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Submitted on May 01, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

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