Analysis of I prayed, at first, a little Girl

Emily Dickinson 1830 (Amherst) – 1886 (Amherst)



I prayed, at first, a little Girl,
Because they told me to—
But stopped, when qualified to guess
How prayer would feel—to me—

If I believed God looked around,
Each time my Childish eye
Fixed full, and steady, on his own
In Childish honesty—

And told him what I'd like, today,
And parts of his far plan
That baffled me—
The mingled side
Of his Divinity—

And often since, in Danger,
I count the force 'twould be
To have a God so strong as that
To hold my life for me

Till I could take the Balance
That tips so frequent, now,
It takes me all the while to poise—
And then—it doesn't stay—


Scheme XXXA XXXA BXAXA XAXA XXXB
Poetic Form
Metre 11110101 011111 1111011 111111 11011101 111101 11010111 010100 01111101 011111 1101 0101 110100 0101010 110111 11011111 111111 1111010 111101 11110111 011101
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 590
Words 116
Sentences 1
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 5, 4, 4
Lines Amount 21
Letters per line (avg) 21
Words per line (avg) 5
Letters per stanza (avg) 89
Words per stanza (avg) 23
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 26, 2023

35 sec read
197

Emily Dickinson

Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was an American poet. more…

All Emily Dickinson poems | Emily Dickinson Books

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