Prayer

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1991

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Form and Meter

“Prayer” is composed of 16 lines divided into 6 stanzas. The last stanza is a single line, but the rest are split into tercets, or groupings of 3. The lines most often contain 8 to 11 syllables but neither follow a particular metrical pattern nor rhyme. Although often labelled a formalist, Gioia has said that while “I ponder formal elements in my poems. I rarely use traditional fixed forms. I tend to experiment in some way and like to think I have a reason for everything I do” (McFayden-Ketchum).

This is a lyric poem, meaning that it concentrates on the speaker’s emotions, which here involve grief. It also has a clear dramatic structure with rising and falling action, though this action is mostly psychological: The poem is structured first as a list of descriptions, partly to capture the arbitrary nature of fate; toward the end of the poem, the speaker introduces their own mortality, which then is heightened by the revelation that a “him” (Line 14) no longer living who is important to the speaker. The poem ends in a lyrical plea for the Divine to “guard” (Line 15) this deceased loved one “until” (Line 14) the speaker dies. The poem’s rhythmic cadence produces a musicality and drives the poem forward.

Paraprosdokian

The Greek etymology of paraprosdokian relates to the word for “beyond expectation.” As it is usually understood, this device is when the final part of a sentence is unexpected and creates an unanticipated shift in the sentence’s meaning; however, paraprosdokian can also apply to pieces of writing much larger than a sentence. In a poem, paraprosdokian would involve the latter part of the poem containing a revelation that requires the reader to reconsider—and even entirely reinterpret—the first parts.

In “Prayer,” paraprosdokian occurs through the pronoun “him” (Line 14), which appears a mere two lines from the poem’s ending: “I will meet you soon enough” (Line 11), the speaker tells the Divine, “but until then I pray watch over him” (Line 14). This late introduction of the deceased “him” comes as a surprise, and it demands a reevaluation of the poem’s earlier narrative; only now can readers understand the grief-stricken nature of the “prayer.” For example, a phrase like “choreographer / of entrances and exits” (Lines 7-8) is given more weight now that the reader knows who has “exit[ed].” Further, the surprise element—the suddenness—of this revelation mimics the child’s unexpected death. The paraprosdokian in “Prayer” is distinctive insofar as the device usually has a comic effect, while the effect in this poem is that of pathos. The late placement of “him” has rhetorical impact even beyond paraprosdokian: It makes the pleading tone of the subsequent lines far more poignant as the “flightless young” (Line 16) is not just the baby bird but the child, too. If the information of Lines 11-16 appeared earlier in the poem, it would not turn with as much emotional weight.

Fragmentation and Indefinability

In addition to emphasizing the religious subject matter, the way the speaker lists their many metaphors affects the reader’s understanding of the speaker’s plight. As the speaker enumerates their descriptions of the Divine, two formal elements enhance the poem’s emotion, the first element being fragmentation. The speaker’s metaphors are listed in a broken, fragmentary way, without complete sentences or complete images. For example, the Divine is called the “[k]eeper of the small gate” (Line 7), but this description does not elaborate on where the gate leads or what lies behind it. The Divine is also the “sweep / of the wind sifting the leaves” (Lines 2-3), but it’s unclear whether the “leaves” are on the ground or on the trees. The fragmentation reflects the speaker’s sense of extreme limitation and their inability to fully grasp fate, but it also reflects how the workings of the Divine are mysterious and unfinished.

The second, related element is indefinability. The Divine is sometimes personified, labelled “a jeweller” (Line 4), a “connoisseur” (Line 4), a “keeper” (Line 7), and a “choreographer” (Line 7), then a “seducer, healer, deity or thief” (Line 10). Even though these are all personal, corporeal roles, the poem is also interspersed with descriptions of the Divine as impersonal and immaterial: an “echo” (Line 1), a “footstep” (Line 2), the “wind” (Line 3), “lightning” (line 5), and a “whisper” (Line 9). All nouns that function as things, not people, and they are disembodied. These contradictions reflect how the Divine is irreducible—and therefore indefinable.

Finally, both elements entail a lack of closure, which symbolizes the speaker’s lack of emotional closure in their grief.