Analysis of The Mother's Prayer
Edith Nesbit 1858 (Kennington, Surrey ) – 1924 (New Romney, Kent)
This was my little son
Who leapt and laughed on my knee:
Body we made with love,
Soul made with love by Thee.
This was the mystery
In which I worshipped Thy grace;
This was the sign to me -
The unveiling of Thy face . . .
This, that lies under Thy skies
Naked as on that day
When the floor of heaven gave way
And the glory of God shone through,
When the world was made new
And Thy word was made flesh for me . . .
He lies there, bare to Thy skies,
O Lord God, see!
Body that was in mine
A secret, sacred spell,
Little hands I have kissed
Trampled by beasts in Hell . . .
Growing beauty and grace . . .
Oh, head that lay on my bosom . . .
Broken, battered, shattered . . .
Body that grew like a blossom!
All that was promised me
On my life's royal day.
Every promise broken -
Only a ghost, and clay!
O God, I kneel at Thy feet;
I lay my hands in Thine:
Thou gavest Thy Son for the world,
And shall I not give mine?
Only--O God, have pity!
All my defences are down:
God, I accept the Cross,
Let HIM have the Crown!
By all that my love has borne,
By all that all mothers bear,
By the infinite patient anguish,
By the never-ceasing prayer,
By the thoughts that cut like a living knife,
By the tears that are never dry,
Take what he died to win You -
God, take Your victory!
We have watched on till the light burned low,
And watched the dawn awake;
We have lived hardly and hardly fared
For our sons' sake.
All that was good in Thy earth,
All that taught us of Heaven,
All that we had in the world
We have given.
We pray with empty hands
And hearts that are stiff with pain.
O God! O God! O God!
Let the sacrifice not be vain.
This is his blood, Lord, see!
His blood that was shed for Thee;
Thy banner is dyed in that red tide
Lord, take Thy victory!
God! give Thine angels power
To fight as he fought,
To scatter the hosts of evil,
To bring their boastings to naught -
Gabriel with trumpet of battle . . .
Michael, who wields Thy sword . . .
Breathe Thou Thy spirit upon them,
Put forth Thy strength, O Lord.
See, Lord, this is his body,
Broken for Thee, for Thee . . .
My son, my little son,
Who leapt and laughed on my knee.
Scheme | aBxbbcbcdeeffbdb ghxhcixibeae xgjgbkxk xlxlxxfb xmxmxajaxnxnbbxb xopopqxqbbaB |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 111101 1101111 101111 111111 110100 0111011 110111 0010111 1111011 101111 10111011 00101111 101111 01111111 1111111 1111 101101 010101 101111 101101 101001 11111110 101010 10111010 111101 111101 1001010 100101 1111111 111101 1111101 011111 1011110 11111 110101 11101 1111111 1111101 101001010 1010101 1011110101 10111101 1111111 111100 111110111 010101 111100101 11011 1111011 1111110 1111001 1110 111101 0111111 111111 1010111 111111 1111111 110110111 111100 1111010 11111 11001110 111111 100110110 101111 11110011 111111 1111110 101111 111101 1101111 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 2,059 |
Words | 415 |
Sentences | 49 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 16, 12, 8, 8, 16, 12 |
Lines Amount | 72 |
Letters per line (avg) | 22 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 263 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 73 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 09, 2023
- 2:04 min read
- 69 Views
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"The Mother's Prayer" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 1 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/8989/the-mother%27s-prayer>.
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