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I heard this on a song.

"a prayer has gone blind"

What does it mean when something abstract "has gone blind"?

They don't like thanking in the comments. So it goes without saying for all my questions from now on...

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  • Without context, we cannot possibly tell. It has no meaning in ordinary English use.
    – Colin Fine
    Commented Sep 25, 2013 at 15:09
  • Here is the context: "I fall asleep to the sound of 'tears of a clown" / a prayer gone by / I am spending my time..."
    – SurvMach
    Commented Sep 25, 2013 at 15:16
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    How is that the context? The phrase doesn't appear in it. But it is quite likely that the answer will be "that's not English, it's poetry".
    – Colin Fine
    Commented Sep 25, 2013 at 15:18
  • @ColinFine SurvMach meant to say "a prayer gone blind." Song by Roxette, apparently, lyrics here.
    – Amory
    Commented Sep 25, 2013 at 15:20
  • Sorry Colin, it was a "prayer gone blind". didn't mean to waste your time.
    – SurvMach
    Commented Sep 25, 2013 at 19:21

2 Answers 2

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Here's a link to a few more lines from OP's song...

I'm spending my time
Watching the sun go down
I fall asleep to the sound
Of "tears of a clown"
A prayer gone blind.

Here are a couple of hundred written instances of blind prayer, showing it's far from unknown. Relevant definitions to bear in mind are these from OED...

In Poker, to go blind : to put up a blind (see blind n. 8); hence to go (a specified stake) blind. Hence applied to forms of Poker in which this is done; so blind hand.

blind 8: In Poker, a stake put up by a player before seeing his cards.

My guess is that (insofar as these lyrics actually have any precise meaning) the implication is the singer's prayer/hope/desire is unlikely to be fulfilled. Obviously a gambler who repeatedly bets blind will win less hands than another player who checks his cards first (and folds if he doesn't have a good hand).

In gambling, a player "betting blind" may actually end up winning more money even if he wins less games, because the odds are usually more favourable for blind bets if they win. But I doubt that "optimistic outcome" sense is implied at all in OP's context. It's really more of a negative allusion to random/hopeless/blind chance.

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It's a vernacular phrase, used to mean that the prayer went unanswered. I've only rarely heard it.

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