Lyric Poem · Peace
The Old Wives' Prayer
Holy-Rood, come forth and shield
Us i' th' city and the field;
Safely guard us, now and aye,
From the blast that burns by day;
And those sounds that us affright
In the dead of dampish night;
Drive all hurtful fiends us fro,
By the time the cocks first crow.
Full-text availability follows the United States display decision recorded below; status can differ elsewhere.
“The Old Wives' Prayer” by Robert Herrick — quilloak.com/poems/the-old-wives-prayer
Quick facts
- Poem
- The Old Wives' Prayer
- Poet
- Robert Herrick
- Length
- 8 lines
- Form
- Lyric Poem, Short Poems
- Themes
- Peace, Death & Loss, 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
- 8 lines · one 8-line stanza
- Line length
- Mostly 7-syllable lines.
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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
- PoetryDBThe Old Wives' Prayer 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 6c6d811349ed7567…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
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