I Rose Up at the Dawn of Day
I Rose Up at the Dawn of Day - meaning Summary
Rejecting Mammon's Throne
The speaker recounts being rebuked at dawn for praying for riches and realizes the voice calls the place the "Throne of Mammon." He insists he already possesses mental joy, love, faith, and spiritual wealth and refuses to bargain with the devil for material gain. The poem contrasts spiritual sufficiency with worldly craving and affirms prayer as directed toward others or moral needs, not toward accumulating riches.
Read Complete AnalysesI rose up at the dawn of day-- `Get thee away! get thee away! Pray'st thou for riches? Away! away! This is the Throne of Mammon grey.' Said I: This, sure, is very odd; I took it to be the Throne of God. For everything besides I have: It is only for riches that I can crave. I have mental joy, and mental health, And mental friends, and mental wealth; I've a wife I love, and that loves me; I've all but riches bodily. I am in God's presence night and day, And He never turns His face away; The accuser of sins by my side doth stand, And he holds my money-bag in his hand. For my worldly things God makes him pay, And he'd pay for more if to him I would pray; And so you may do the worst you can do; Be assur'd, Mr. Devil, I won't pray to you. Then if for riches I must not pray, God knows, I little of prayers need say; So, as a church is known by its steeple, If I pray it must be for other people. He says, if I do not worship him for a God, I shall eat coarser food, and go worse shod; So, as I don't value such things as these, You must do, Mr. Devil, just as God please.
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