Prayer

Gioia has explicitly stated that he wrote “Prayer” in memory of his infant son Michael Jasper, who died of sudden infant death syndrome in 1987 (See: Further Reading & Resources). The poem is autobiographical in nature but can describe more universal feelings of loss as well. The lyric poem mostly expresses the speaker’s contemplations of the spiritual force that oversees the world. Its conclusion contains a plea for that force to aid the speaker during their grief by securing the safety of the beloved—"him” (Line 14)—in the afterlife.

The speaker addresses the force that took their deceased loved one from them, whether it be a “deity or thief” (Line 10), God or a personification of death. This all-powerful entity controls time, nature, who lives or dies, and the afterlife. The first stanza’s images center on time and emptiness, perhaps suggesting the longevity of grief. The first line’s image “Echo of the clocktower” suggests the ring of a bell heard by all, as most clocktowers loom over a large portion of the town. In past centuries, bells were used to signify the loss of a significant person. The awareness of the clocktower also suggests the passage of time and symbolizes mortality.

The word “echo” (Line 1) gives this line a foreboding quality, suggesting that this toll of time is inevitable and that the loss keeps returning to the speaker. This is followed by a “footstep / in the alleyway” (Lines 1-2), which suggests either the speaker’s lone passage through the streets or the eerie idea that someone or something is following said speaker; given the tolling of bells and connotations of mortality, this following entity could be Death. The “alleyway” (Line 2) suggests, too, that this action is clandestine, or hidden. The speaker may be being stalked, an idea conveying the sense of being haunted by Death.

Desolation is also expressed by “the wind sifting the leaves” (Line 3), another auditory image that shows how something unseen can nevertheless rattle the surrounding world. The speaker is aware that the invisible may follow and control them. The endless days of grief seem inescapable. Death, or the force that causes death, seems omniscient and omnipresent. The speaker also emphasizes the power of the unseen force by noting its capacity to produce the beautiful as well as the eerie.

It is, they note, the “[j]eweller of the spiderweb” (Line 4). This suggests that what the force can create is precious. While the image could imply morning dew sparkling on the strands, it may also suggest that the “spiderweb” (Line 4) itself is beautiful, although many might pass by it unawares as it is so thin and ephemeral. This beautiful image is followed by another as the speaker calls the invisible entity a “connoisseur of autumn’s opulence” (Lines 4-5), which suggests that it conjures the richness of fall’s color. Even though the speaker is grieving, they acknowledge the delicacy and splendor that exist in the natural world around them.

The speaker finds it impressive that the entity can create beauty, but they also note an awe-inspiring aspect, remarking on the “blade of lightning / harvesting the sky” (Line 5-6): A bolt in a sickle shape cuts through the sky. The speaker cannot deny the phenomenon’s wondrous display, but the image also evokes Death as the figure is often symbolically portrayed carrying a scythe. This leads the speaker to contemplate how the Divine contends with human lives. The entity who shapes the thunderbolt also shapes the tiny, domestic life as it is the “[k]eeper of the small gate” (Line 7)—or home. It also is a “choreographer / of entrances and exits” (Lines 7-8), suggesting that it chooses how a person enters and leaves the earthly sphere. In other words, the speaker had no control over the loved one being taken from them.

This leads to what has happened, and the speaker compares Death to a “midnight / whisper traveling the wires” (Lines 8-9), which suggests how quietly it came to claim the beloved. This reference may also describe the speaker’s and others’ grief, or the titular “prayer” said over the body of the deceased as the soul is translated to the afterlife. While the first three stanzas describe the spiritual being whom the speaker must confront, the fourth stanza depicts a more explicit address by the speaker to that entity. As the speaker sums up the “you” (Line 11) as a “[s]educer, healer, deity or thief” (Line 10), their conflicted emotions are evident.

Line 10 conveys the idea that dying can either be a moment of redemption, healing, or—especially for those left behind—a moment when one feels something has been stolen from them. Death comes for everyone eventually, and the speaker acknowledges that they, too, will face their own death “soon enough” (Line 11). Their self-awareness allows them to register that they will see death in their daily surroundings: “in the shadow of the rainfall” (Line 12) or “the brief violet darkening of a sunset” (Line 13). They know they will not be on earth forever. This ominous thought is also a healing one, as the speaker knows that there is at least the chance that they will someday rejoin their loved one.

The poem achieves its poignancy in its closing. The speaker acknowledges that while they too will die, since they don’t know when this event will occur, they must “pray” (Line 14) to have the “deity or thief” (Line 10) caretake their deceased loved one and “watch over him” (Line 14). The sudden addition of the deceased “him” (Line 14) late in the poem encourages the reader to reread the previous stanzas, and it clarifies the speaker’s struggle between the cruelty and beauty of life.

That the “him” (Line 14) was precious to the speaker is particularly clear in the poem’s last two images. First, the speaker entreats the Divine to “watch over” (Line 14) the deceased like “a mountain guards its covert ore” (Line 15). Ore is a precious resource nestled deep under the mountain. Similarly, the “deity or thief” (Line 10) should protect the deceased as “the harsh falcon its flightless young” (Line 16). For a baby bird to survive before it has feathers, it must be nourished and protected. These safeguarding, nesting images—one thing covering another—emphasize the protective qualities of a caregiver. The speaker does not want to give up that role, but fate has offered no choice. Since the speaker is still on earth, they can only “pray” (Line 14) that the Divine will act as a surrogate guardian until they shall join their child. That is their true “prayer.”

The closing premise offers a spiritual reversal: The living speaker is nonactive, or dead, while the “him” (Line 14) resides in the true home of the afterlife where he can be nourished and protected by the “deity” (Line 10). Many wish to trade places with their deceased loved ones, particularly if the deceased is younger than they, and mourn unlived days. Gioia’s speaker captures the idea of what it is to hope that there is an afterlife.