“Prayer” is composed of 16 lines divided into 6 stanzas. The last stanza is a single line, but the rest are split into tercets, or groupings of 3. The lines most often contain 8 to 11 syllables but neither follow a particular metrical pattern nor rhyme. Although often labelled a formalist, Gioia has said that while “I ponder formal elements in my poems. I rarely use traditional fixed forms. I tend to experiment in some way and like to think I have a reason for everything I do” (McFayden-Ketchum).

This is a lyric poem, meaning that it concentrates on the speaker’s emotions, which here involve grief. It also has a clear dramatic structure with rising and falling action, though this action is mostly psychological: The poem is structured first as a list of descriptions, partly to capture the arbitrary nature of fate; toward the end of the poem, the speaker introduces their own mortality, which then is heightened by the revelation that a “him” (Line 14) no longer living who is important to the speaker. The poem ends in a lyrical plea for the Divine to “guard” (Line 15) this deceased loved one “until” (Line 14) the speaker dies.