A Prayer in Spring
Robert Frost (1915)
Oh, give us pleasure in the flowers today;
And give us not to think so far away
As the uncertain harvest; keep us here
All simply in the springing of the year.
Oh, give us pleasure in the orchard white,
Like nothing else by day, like ghosts by night;
And make us happy in the happy bees,
The swarm dilating round the perfect trees.
And make us happy in the darting bird
That suddenly above the bees is heard,
The meteor that thrusts in with needle bill,
And off a blossom in mid air stands still.
For this is love and nothing else is love,
To which it is reserved for God above
To sanctify to what far ends he will,
But which it only needs that we fulfill
The theme of this poem is the expression of God’s love for human beings to be happy by bringing them happiness in the form of a beautiful spring.The speaker is thoughtful, cheerful, and hopeful. He wants the happiness like the spring season and that we should enjoy the happy situation now rather than worrying about the future. The pattern of this poem is AABB CCDD EEFF GGHH, etc. where the same letters show rhyming between the two connected lined in each stanza. There are four stanzas in this poem. Each stanza has four lines. The setting of this poem is in the garden. The figurative languages that the author uses are symbol, simile, metaphor, and personification. According to symbol, the speaker used “All simply in the springing of the year.”
“And off a blossom in mid air stands still.” “And make us happy in the darting bird” “And make us happy in the happy bees, the swarm dilating round the perfect trees”. The speaker compares these sentences with something new is coming. Refer to simile, this poem uses simile in Stanza 1and Stanza 2. In stanza one line two, the word “as” is used in: “And give us not to think so far away; as the uncertain harvest…” The simile compares between our thought for the future and the uncertain harvest. In Stanza 2, the word “like” is used in: “like nothing else by day, like ghosts by night”. This line compares with first line: “Oh, give us pleasure in the orchard white.” So, the author is making the first comparison between "the orchard white" and "nothing else by day.
"The second comparison is between "the orchard white" and "ghost by night." Concerning to metaphor, in stanza 3, third line, you will see the use of metaphor, which is the direct comparison between two different things.
The metaphor is shown in third line: “The meteor that thrusts in with needle bill”. In this case, the author compares the meteor with the bird which flies quickly through the air. Regarding to personification, in Stanza 3, third to fourth line, the author uses personification also in: "The meteor that thrusts in with needle bill, And off a blossom in mid air stands still.” This means that “the meteor” moves like human beings, but they are not humans.
We learn that we should not worry about the future, or anything that hasn’t happened. But we should enjoy the present and just do the best we can. This is enough. Your future depends on your actions today.
After we read this poem, we can feel that this poem uses beautiful words to comment on people's lives. It inspires us to do good things in our life by focusing on the present. We should not worry about the future. In fact, we should make every day a happy day. In Christianity, people believe that God loves everyone, and builds everything for them in their lives. God will bring everything that people pray for. When their prayer comes true, they will thank God. On the contrary, in Buddhism we are taught to believe in our own deeds, like doing good will bring you good results, and doing bad will bring you bad results. You get whatever you do in return.