"The War Prayer"

Born in Missouri in 1835, Mark Twain briefly fought for the Confederates during the Civil War. But when the Philippine-American War broke out, he wrote a short story that contrasts patriotic excitement with the horrors of war.

Here are all the word lists to support the reading of Grade 11 Unit 3's texts from SpringBoard's Common Core ELA series: Media in a Democracy, Daily Me, The Newspaper Is Dying, Facebook Photos Sting, Abolish high school football, Facing Consequences, Time to raise the bar, New Michigan Graduation Requirements, Why I Hate Cell Phones, Editorial Cartoons, Let's Hear It for the Cheerleaders, Girl Moved to Tears, In Depth, but Shallowly, Advice to Youth, The War Prayer, Gambling in Schools, How to Poison the Earth
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. exalt
    heighten or intensify
    It was a time of great and exalting excitement.
  2. oratory
    the act of addressing an audience formally
    nightly the packed mass meetings listened, panting, to patriot oratory which stirred the deepest deeps of their hearts, and which they interrupted at briefest intervals with cyclones of applause, the tears running down their cheeks the while
  3. fervid
    characterized by intense emotion
    in the churches the pastors preached devotion to flag and country, and invoked the God of Battles beseeching His aid in our good cause in outpourings of fervid eloquence which moved every listener
  4. martial
    suggesting war or military life
    Sunday morning came--next day the battalions would leave for the front; the church was filled; the volunteers were there, their young faces alight with martial dreams
  5. saber
    a stout sword with a curved blade and thick back
    visions of the stern advance, the gathering momentum, the rushing charge, the flashing sabers, the flight of the foe, the tumult, the enveloping smoke, the fierce pursuit, the surrender!
  6. invocation
    a prayer asking God's help as part of a religious service
    with one impulse the house rose, with glowing eyes and beating hearts, and poured out that tremendous invocation--"God the all-terrible! Thou who ordainest! Thunder thy clarion and lightning thy sword!"
  7. supplication
    a prayer asking God's help as part of a religious service
    The burden of its supplication was that an ever-merciful and benignant Father of us all would watch over our noble young soldiers, and aid, comfort, and encourage them in their patriotic work
  8. cataract
    disease that involves the clouding of the lens of the eye
    An aged stranger entered and moved with slow and noiseless step up the main aisle, his eyes fixed upon the minister, his long body clothed in a robe that reached to his feet, his head bare, his white hair descending in a frothy cataract to his shoulders, his seamy face unnaturally pale, pale even to ghastliness.
  9. fervent
    characterized by intense emotion
    With shut lids the preacher, unconscious of his presence, continued with his moving prayer, and at last finished it with the words, uttered in fervent appeal, "Bless our arms, grant us the victory, O Lord our God, Father and Protector of our land and flag!"
  10. smite
    affect suddenly with deep feeling
    The words smote the house with a shock
  11. import
    a meaning that is not expressly stated but can be inferred
    He has heard the prayer of His servant your shepherd, and will grant it if such shall be your desire after I, His messenger, shall have explained to you its import--that is to say, its full import.
  12. writhing
    moving in a twisting or snake-like or wormlike fashion
    O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain
  13. desolate
    cause extensive destruction or ruin utterly
    help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst
  14. blight
    cause to suffer devastation
    for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet!
  15. contrite
    feeling or expressing pain or sorrow
    We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is the ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts.
Created on Sat Nov 15 22:11:43 EST 2014 (updated Sun Nov 16 00:34:36 EST 2014)

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