Poetry · Chapter
The Prism explained
The poem uses the image of a child capturing a prism of sunlight only to find it vanished when she looks, as a metaphor for the inability to store divine grace.
What happens
The poem uses the image of a child capturing a prism of sunlight only to find it vanished when she looks, as a metaphor for the inability to store divine grace. The speaker reflects on how spiritual light cannot be hoarded; it must be received anew each day through God's presence.
Themes in this chapter
Redemption and Grace
Grace is portrayed as a daily gift from God that cannot be stored or possessed, requiring continual reliance on divine presence.
Childhood and Innocence
The child's attempt to capture the sunbeam illustrates innocent wonder and the lesson that spiritual treasures cannot be grasped by human effort.
Characters to notice
Key passages
“The best of gifts will not be stored: The manna of yesterday Has filled no sacred miser-hoard To keep new need away.”
The greatest gifts cannot be saved for later; yesterday's divine provision does not satisfy today's needs.
Emphasizes the necessity of daily dependence on God's grace.
“Thy grace, O Lord, it is thyself; Thy presence is thy light; I cannot lay it on my shelf, Or take it from thy sight.”
Your grace is inseparable from your own being; I cannot possess or control it apart from your presence.
Identifies grace with God's very self, not a commodity.