In "Verses Put into a Lady's Prayerbook," John Wilmot
advises a lady that the prayer book will be a "useless book" until and unless she begins
to display mercy:
Heaven is just, and can
bestow
Mercy on none but those that mercy
show.
In the meantime, the
poet warns the lady, "In vain you vex the gods with your petition"; in other words, your
prayer is only bothering God until you begin to show mercy to other
people.
Although it is not explicit in the poem, it seems
that the person who has not been treated with mercy by the lady is none other than the
poet himself, who is in love with her. The poet mentions that the lady is "fair"
(beautiful) and has "bright and charming eyes"; he concludes the poem with the hope that
he and the lady may someday experience "all the joys on
Earth."
Each line of the poem contains between 7 and 11
syllables. There are three distinct rhyme schemes within the
poem:
Lines 1-6: aa, bb,
cc
Lines 7-9: ddd
Lines 10-13:
ee, ff
Lines 14-17:
g-h-g-h
The poem makes good use of alliteration; for
example: presume-pray, vain-vex, save-soul.
I would not
consider the poem particularly rich in imagery, although the opening image of flinging
away a prayer book is a strong one, and must have been considered somewhat daring in
1697 when the poem was written.
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