Lyric Poem · Love
In My Solitary Hours in My Dear Husband his Absence
1O Lord, Thou hear'st my daily moan
2And see'st my dropping tears.
3My troubles all are Thee before,
4My longings and my fears.
5Thou hitherto hast been my God;
6Thy help my soul hath found.
7Though loss and sickness me assailed,
8Through Thee I've kept my ground.
9And Thy abode Thou'st made with me;
10With Thee my soul can talk;
11In secret places Thee I find
12Where I do kneel or walk.
13Though husband dear be from me gone,
14Whom I do love so well,
15I have a more beloved one
16Whose comforts far excel.
17O stay my heart on Thee. my God,
18Uphold my fainting soul.
19And when I know not what to do,
20I'll on Thy mercies roll.
21My weakness. Thou dost know full well
22Of body and of mind;
23I in this world no comfort have,
24But what from Thee I find.
25Though children Thou has given me,
26And friends I have also,
27Yet if I see Thee not through them
28They are no joy, but woe.
29O shine upon me, blessed Lord,
30Ev'n for my Saviour's sake;
31In Thee alone is more than all,
32And there content I'll take.
33O hear me, Lord, in this request
34As Thou before hast done,
35Bring back my husband, I beseech,
36As Thou didst once my son.
37So shall I celebrate Thy praise
38Ev'n while my days shall last
39And talk to my beloved one
40Of all Thy goodness past.
41So both of us Thy kindness, Lord,
42With praises shall recount
43And serve Thee better than before
44Whose blessings thus surmount.
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“In My Solitary Hours in My Dear Husband his Absence” by Anne Bradstreet — quilloak.com/poems/in-my-solitary-hours-in-my-dear-husband-his-absence
Quick facts
- Poem
- In My Solitary Hours in My Dear Husband his Absence
- Poet
- Anne Bradstreet
- Length
- 52 lines
- Form
- Lyric Poem
- Themes
- Love, Peace, Sad
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
- 52 lines · 13 quatrains
- End rhyme
- ABCB in 62% of the stanzas — ballad rhyme — only lines 2 and 4 chime. The remaining stanzas vary, often through slant rhyme.
- Line length
- Lines run 6-8 syllables (median 7). No single length dominates, which is normal once elision and contraction are in play.
Want the rules this form is measured against? Read what makes a lyric poem, or run your own draft through the form checker to see the same measurements on your lines. How we measure · Report a mistake
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
- Anne Bradstreet1612–1672
- Source record
- PoetryDBIn My Solitary Hours in My Dear Husband his Absence by anne-bradstreet, PoetryDB transcription
- Display decision
- Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
- Publication record
- Not recorded in the imported source
- Text fingerprint
- SHA-256 aebbff8c082aee79…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
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