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Poetry · Chapter

A Broken Prayer explained

A desperate, anguished prayer to God, pleading for purification, guidance, and deliverance from spiritual despair and doubt.

What happens

A desperate, anguished prayer to God, pleading for purification, guidance, and deliverance from spiritual despair and doubt. The speaker laments their own sinfulness, the corruption of creeds, and the seeming distance of the divine, while yearning for a transformative, purifying presence.

Themes in this chapter

  • Spiritual Struggle and Doubt

    The entire prayer is a cry of spiritual turmoil, questioning God's purpose and the speaker's own worthiness.

  • Suffering and Purification

    The speaker asks to be purified through sorrow and trials, seeing suffering as a means to become closer to God.

  • Redemption and Grace

    Underlying the despair is a plea for redemption and the grace to be led homeward and made pure.

Characters to notice

  • God

    Addressed throughout as 'my God', 'O Lord', 'Mighty One'; the recipient of the broken prayer.

  • Unknown

    The speaker of the prayer, expressing deep personal anguish and longing for divine intervention.

  • Satan

    Implied through voices of temptation that mock the speaker with accusations of worthlessness.

Key passages

  • “Oh, take me like a child, If thou hast made me for thyself, my God, And lead me up thy hills.”

    Please guide me with the trust of a child, leading me toward spiritual elevation.

    Expresses a desire for simple, trusting faith and divine guidance.

  • “The creeds lie in the hollow of men’s hearts Like festering pools glassing their own corruption”

    Religious doctrines stagnate within people, reflecting only their own decay.

    Critique of empty or corrupt religious formalism.

  • “I am a child lost in a mighty forest; The air is thick with voices, and strange hands Reach through the dusk, and pluck me by the skirts.”

    I feel lost and confused, surrounded by conflicting influences that pull at me.

    Metaphor for spiritual disorientation and vulnerability.

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