19 pages • 38 minutes read
Different Ways to Pray
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Literary Devices
Form and Meter
Nye’s “Different Ways to Pray” is a free verse, unrhyming poem that lacks a metrical pattern. Divided into six stanzas of varying line lengths, the poem is organized based on content: The content determines the stanza breaks. For instance, each stanza describes and defines a new form of prayer. Because the poem’s form is dictated by its content, the poem—which is told through the voice of a third person omniscient narrator in the past tense—functions much like a narrative or a story being told to the reader. Using elements of narrative such as repetition and anaphora, Nye creates expectation (“There was” [Line 1] and “There were” [Line 10]) that drives the poem forward.
“Different Ways to Pray” also functions as a list poem, which is defined as collecting content in a list form. Tending to not have a fixed rhyme scheme or a set rhyming pattern (like Nye’s), the list order can either provide coherence or it can show the way the speaker’s mind moves through the subject (in this case, forms of prayer).
Nye’s poem oscillates between traditional and untraditional forms of prayer. Structurally, her poem mimics this oscillation in the length of her lines, which range from long lines (“The women dreamed wistfully of bleached courtyards” [Line 4]) to short lines (“on foot, many times” [Line 25; this also creates a form of rhythm. Occasionally, Nye’s poem makes use of rhyme. For instance, Line 41 (“for the twig, the round moon” [Line 41]) slant rhymes with Line 45 (“the old man Fowzi, for example, Fowzi the fool” [Line 45]).
Imagery
Imagery in “Different Ways to Pray” establishes a sense of feeling and place in the poem. Defined as elements that invoke the five senses to create a mental image of an object, place or to establish a particular feeling, imagery in poetry is typically expressed in vivid figurative language (“Imagery.” The Poetry Foundation.). Examples of imagery in “Different Ways to Pray” establish a sense of both prayer and place. For instance, the speaker illustrates the image of the women in Stanza 1 who “dreamed wistfully of bleached courtyards” (Line 4). This visual image of “bleached” (Line 4) is carried into the following lines when the speaker describes the women’s prayers as “weathered rib bones” (Line 6). Nye further expands this tactile image, drawing on the “bones” (Line 6) of the previous line to describe the words of the prayers: “small calcium words uttered in sequence” (Line 7). Stanza 1 functions as a drawn-out image of women kneeling in prayer, ardently uttering words of worship. In Line 5, the speaker notes how the women dreamed of “hidden corners where knee fit rock” (Line 5). This visual image of the women’s knees perfectly fitting into the smooth stone is echoed in the final line of the stanza when the speaker illustrates the image of the women praying so faithfully it’s as though their spoken prayers “could somehow / fuse them to the sky” (Lines 8-9).
Nye’s use of imagery similarly functions throughout the rest of “Different Ways to Pray.” Stanza 2 paints the picture of the shepherds in the fields, drawing on the sense of smell (“the olives bobbed peacefully / in fragrant buckets of vinegar and thyme” [Lines 15-16]) and taste (“the men ate heartily, flat bread and white cheese” [Line 17]). Stanza 3 describes the faithful pilgrims coming to Mecca, illustrating their journey through visual imagery (“ride buses across miles of vacant sand” [Line 22]). Imagery adds color, taste, smell, and sound to Nye’s poem, placing the reader at the center of each form of prayer.
Repetition and Anaphora
Nye uses repetition and anaphora in “Different Ways to Pray” to add structure to the poem and to create a pattern through rhythm. Anaphora is defined as the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of a sentence, clause, or line. “Different Ways to Pray” uses anaphora at the start of several stanzas (Stanza 1, Stanza 2, Stanza 5, and Stanza 6), represented by the phrases “There was” (Line 1) and “There were” (Line 10). By repeating these words at the start of most stanzas, Nye creates a pattern or expectation. The poem takes the form of a list where each stanza describes a different form of prayer.
Repetition, unlike anaphora, is a broader instance of repeated sounds, syllables, phrases, and words in poetry. These repetitions can occur at any point of the stanza, line, or poem. Nye uses repetition throughout “Different Ways to Pray” to create a unified voice and establish expectation. For instance, the repeated sentence structure “they” plus a verb is repeated throughout the poem, defining the types or prayer connected to a plural, third person pronoun. In Stanza 2, Nye’s speaker states “they walked” (Line 11) and “they raised their arms” (Line 12).
Nye uses a variation of the phrase in Stanza 3, describing the pilgrims and their worship rituals: “[T]hey arrived” (Line 23), “they would circle the holy places” (Line 24) and “they would bend to kiss the earth” (Line 26). This repeated phrasing creates a pattern throughout the poem. Nye repeats other words, too, that add to this repeated pattern, including the word “ones” (Lines 34 and 37) to describe the worshipers.
Lastly, Nye also repeats words from line to line, creating a sonic rhythm. For instance, in Stanza 1, the speaker states, “There was the method of kneeling, / a fine method” (Lines 1-2) in which “method” (Lines 1 and 2) is repeated. This repetition occurs again in Stanza 2 when the speaker describes the shepherds as being “happy in spite of the pain, / because there was also happiness” (Lines 18-19).
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By Naomi Shihab Nye
