Miranda: “If by your art, my dearest father”

What is happening, what every line means, how to perform it, and how to use it in an audition, with the full text.

The Offbook team

Oct 8, 2026

What is happening

The Tempest opens at sea, on a ship caught in a violent storm. The sailors fight it, the noble passengers panic, and the ship seems to split apart. Watching from the shore of a remote island is Miranda, who has lived there with her father, Prospero, for twelve years, since she was not yet three.

Prospero was once Duke of Milan, until his brother Antonio took his dukedom, but Miranda does not know that yet: she knows almost nothing about where she came from. What she does know is that her father has magic, his “art.” She suspects he raised this storm, and she is horrified.

This is the first thing Miranda says in the play, spoken to her father as Act 1, Scene 2 begins. He answers, “Be collected: / No more amazement: tell your piteous heart / There’s no harm done.” Then he tells her nobody on the ship has been hurt, takes off his magic cloak, and tells her the story of their past for the first time. Aboard the ship are the enemies who drove him out, along with Ferdinand, Prince of Naples, whom Miranda will soon fall in love with.

Lines: 13
Words: 111
At 150 wpm: 42 sec
Form: Verse

The speech, beat by beat

The full text in 4 beats. Under each beat: what it means in plain English, and a note for playing it.

Lines 1–2 · Stop it

1If by your art, my dearest father, you have
Put the wild waters in this roar, allay them.

In plain English My dearest father, if you have used your magic to whip the sea into this roaring, calm it.

Acting note “If” is polite, but she already believes he did it. “My dearest father” is love and leverage at once. The real verb is “allay”: a request that is close to an order.

Lines 3–5 · The storm

3The sky, it seems, would pour down stinking pitch,
But that the sea, mounting to the welkin’s cheek,
5Dashes the fire out. O, I have suffered

In plain English It looks as if the sky would pour down burning tar, except that the sea rises so high it reaches the face of heaven and puts the fire out. Then, in the middle of line 5, she turns from the storm to herself: “O, I have suffered.”

Acting note Make the picture big and fast: fire falling, water climbing to meet it. She is still frightened, so this is not a calm description.

Lines 6–9 · The wreck

6With those that I saw suffer: a brave vessel,
Who had, no doubt, some noble creature in her,
Dash’d all to pieces. O, the cry did knock
Against my very heart. Poor souls, they perish’d.

In plain English I suffered along with the people I watched suffer. A fine ship, which surely had some noble person aboard, smashed to pieces. Their cry struck my very heart. Poor souls, they died.

Acting note She saw it and she heard it. “O, the cry did knock / Against my very heart” is the sound coming back to her. “Poor souls, they perish’d” is short and final; let it stop her for a moment.

Lines 10–13 · If I were a god

10Had I been any god of power, I would
Have sunk the sea within the earth or ere
It should the good ship so have swallow’d and
The fraughting souls within her.

In plain English If I had the power of any god, I would have sunk the sea down into the earth before I let it swallow that good ship and all the people it carried.

Acting note A quiet rebuke: she is telling her father, who does have that power, what he should have done with it. The sentence spills over the end of line 12 and stops on half a line, which Prospero finishes with “Be collected.”

Hard words

Word	Line	Meaning
art	1	magic
allay	2	calm, quiet
stinking pitch	3	foul-smelling tar (here, burning tar, like lightning)
welkin’s cheek	4	the face of the sky
brave vessel	6	fine, splendid ship
creature	7	person, being
or ere	11	before
fraughting souls	13	the people who made up the ship’s freight; its passengers

How to perform it

Play the objective. She wants the storm stopped, and she wants her father to feel what she felt. She is not describing the weather to an audience; she is pleading with the one person who can end it.
Find the three turns. Line 5, “O, I have suffered,” moves from the sky to her own heart. Line 9, “Poor souls, they perish’d,” is the low point. Line 10 turns to anger at power used without pity. That is three shifts in thirteen lines, so each one has to be clear.
Make it personal. She does not know anyone on that ship, yet she grieves for them as if she did. That compassion is the first thing we learn about her, and it is what Prospero answers when he tells her “tell your piteous heart / There’s no harm done.”
Speak through the line endings. The verse keeps running on (“you have / Put,” “I would / Have sunk,” “swallow’d and / The fraughting souls”). Carry the sense across and land on the strong verbs: allay, dashes, suffered, perish’d, sunk.
Plan the ending. The speech stops on half a line because her father cuts in. In an audition, finish as if you are waiting for his answer, rather than closing it off with a bow.
Common mistakes: playing her as a sweet, wide-eyed girl. She is about fifteen and telling her powerful father off. Also avoid a general wash of sadness; she moves from fear, to grief, to indignation.

Using it in an audition

A good first Shakespeare piece, often recommended for younger actors because the situation is clear and the feeling is direct. Miranda is about fifteen, so it suits teenagers and young actors. It is short: 13 lines, about 45 seconds at a conversational pace, so it fits a one-minute slot but is far too short for two minutes on its own. For a longer slot, pair it with a contrasting comic piece, such as the Gaoler’s Daughter’s “Why should I love this gentleman?” or Helena’s “How happy some o’er other some can be!” If you want a second Miranda speech, her lines to Ferdinand in Act 3, Scene 1 (“I do not know / One of my sex”) show her lighter, bolder side.

Miranda, The Tempest, Act 1, Scene 2. William Shakespeare. Public domain text.

How long it runs

Pace	Words a minute	Run time
Deliberate	130	54 seconds
Conversational	150	42 seconds
Brisk	170	42 seconds

These are speech times before pauses. To time your own run, paste the text into the monologue timer.

Practice it: first-letter version

Each word is cut to its first letter. Say the whole line from the letters, then check the text. Make cues from any script with the first-letter memorizer.

I b y a, m d f, y h

P t w w i t r, a t.

T s, i s, w p d s p,

B t t s, m t t w c,

D t f o. O, I h s

W t t I s s: a b v,

W h, n d, s n c i h,

D a t p. O, t c d k

A m v h. P s, t p.

H I b a g o p, I w

H s t s w t e o e

I s t g s s h s a

T f s w h.

More from The Tempest

More lists: Shakespeare monologues, Monologues for women, Comedic monologues, Short monologues, one minute or less, Monologues for teens.

Sources

Questions actors ask

How long is Miranda’s If by your art, my dearest father speech?

13 lines and 111 words. At 150 words a minute it runs about 42 seconds; a slower, more deliberate delivery at 130 takes about 54 seconds. Pauses add time, so time a full run out loud.

Is it a good audition monologue?

What is the fastest way to memorize it?

Learn it in sense units, not line by line: say each thought out loud until you can do it without looking, then add the next. The first-letter version below keeps the shape of every line in view while you test yourself.