The Prayer-seeker Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCDE FFGGHH IIJJKKE LLMNHHO PPQQRRO SSTTUUO MMVWXXO MMXRYYO| Along the aisle where prayer was made | A |
| A woman all in black arrayed | A |
| Close veiled between the kneeling host | B |
| With gliding motion of a ghost | B |
| Passed to the desk and laid thereon | C |
| A scroll which bore these words alone | D |
| Pray for me | E |
| - | |
| Back from the place of worshipping | F |
| She glided like a guilty thing | F |
| The rustle of her draperies stirred | G |
| By hurrying feet alone was heard | G |
| While full of awe the preacher read | H |
| As out into the dark she sped | H |
| ' Pray for me ' | - |
| - | |
| Back to the night from whence she came | I |
| To unimagined grief or shame | I |
| Across the threshold of that door | J |
| None knew the burden that she bore | J |
| Alone she left the written scroll | K |
| The legend of a troubled soul | K |
| Pray for me | E |
| - | |
| Glide on poor ghost of woe or sin | L |
| Thou leav'st a common need within | L |
| Each bears like thee some nameless weight | M |
| Some misery inarticulate | N |
| Some secret sin some shrouded dread | H |
| Some household sorrow all unsaid | H |
| Pray for us | O |
| - | |
| Pass on The type of all thou art | P |
| Sad witness to the common heart | P |
| With face in veil and seal on lip | Q |
| In mute and strange companionship | Q |
| Like thee we wander to and fro | R |
| Dumbly imploring as we go | R |
| Pray for us | O |
| - | |
| Ah who shall pray since he who pleads | S |
| Our want perchance hath greater needs | S |
| Yet they who make their loss the gain | T |
| Of others shall not ask in vain | T |
| And Heaven bends low to hear the prayer | U |
| Of love from lips of self despair | U |
| Pray for us | O |
| - | |
| In vain remorse and fear and hate | M |
| Beat with bruised bands against a fate | M |
| Whose walls of iron only move | V |
| And open to the touch of love | W |
| He only feels his burdens fall | X |
| Who taught by suffering pities all | X |
| Pray for us | O |
| - | |
| He prayeth best who leaves unguessed | M |
| The mystery of another's breast | M |
| Why cheeks grow pale why eyes o'erflow | X |
| Or heads are white thou need'st not know | R |
| Enough to note by many a sign | Y |
| That every heart hath needs like thine | Y |
| Pray for us | O |
John Greenleaf Whittier
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
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