Lyric Poem · Peace
I prayed, at first, a little Girl
1I prayed, at first, a little Girl,
2Because they told me to —
3But stopped, when qualified to guess
4How prayer would feel — to me —
5If I believed God looked around,
6Each time my Childish eye
7Fixed full, and steady, on his own
8In Childish honesty —
9And told him what I'd like, today,
10And parts of his far plan
11That baffled me —
12The mingled side
13Of his Divinity —
Full-text availability follows the United States display decision recorded below; status can differ elsewhere.
“I prayed, at first, a little Girl” by Emily Dickinson — quilloak.com/poems/i-prayed-at-first-a-little-girl
Quick facts
- Poem
- I prayed, at first, a little Girl
- Poet
- Emily Dickinson
- Length
- 21 lines
- Form
- Lyric Poem
- Themes
- Peace
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
- 21 lines · 5 stanzas of 4–5 lines
- End rhyme
- No regular perfect end rhyme. The poem may still be using slant rhyme, assonance, or internal echo, which this check does not score.
- Line length
- Lines run 5-8 syllables (median 6), consistent with trimeter. No single length dominates, which is normal once elision and contraction are in play.
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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
- Emily Dickinson1830–1886
- Source record
- PoetryDBI prayed, at first, a little Girl by emily-dickinson, PoetryDB transcription
- Display decision
- Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
- Publication record
- Not recorded in the imported source
- Text fingerprint
- SHA-256 71be71659bd7f537…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.