Lyric Poem · Peace
His Prayer For Absolution
1For those my unbaptized rhymes,
2Writ in my wild unhallowed times,
3For every sentence, clause, and word,
4That's not inlaid with Thee, my Lord,
5Forgive me, God, and blot each line
6Out of my book, that is not Thine.
7But if, 'mongst all, Thou find'st here one
8Worthy thy benediction,
9That one of all the rest shall be
10The glory of my work, and me.
Full-text availability follows the United States display decision recorded below; status can differ elsewhere.
“His Prayer For Absolution” by Robert Herrick — quilloak.com/poems/his-prayer-for-absolution
Quick facts
- Poem
- His Prayer For Absolution
- Poet
- Robert Herrick
- Length
- 10 lines
- Form
- Lyric Poem
- Themes
- Peace, Short
Craft notes
How this poem works
Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.
- Shape
- 10 lines · one 10-line stanza
- Line length
- Mostly 8-syllable lines (tetrameter length).
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Text, source & rights
A traceable edition
Full-text display is based on the committed source record and a United States term-expiry review.
- Author record
- Robert Herrick1591–1674
- Source record
- PoetryDBHis Prayer For Absolution by robert-herrick, PoetryDB transcription
- Display decision
- Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
- Publication record
- Not recorded in the imported source
- Text fingerprint
- SHA-256 297f80e020588b38…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.