A Little Girl Lost
Children of the future age,Reading this indignant page,Know that in a former timeLove, sweet love, was thought a crime.
In the age of gold,Free from winter's cold,Youth and maiden bright,To the holy light,Naked in the sunny beams delight.
Once a youthful pair,Filled with softest care,Met in garden brightWhere the holy lightHad just removed the curtains of the night.
Then, in rising day,On the grass they play;Parents were afar,Strangers came not near,And the maiden soon forgot her fear.
Tired with kisses sweet,They agree to meetWhen the silent sleepWaves o'er heaven's deep,And the weary tired wanderers weep.
To her father whiteCame the maiden bright;But his loving look,Like the holy bookAll her tender limbs with terror shook.
"Ona, pale and weak,To thy father speak!Oh the trembling fear!Oh the dismal careThat shakes the blossoms of my hoary hair!"
Words in this poem
- indignant a.
- Affected with indignation; wrathful; passionate; irate; feeling wrath, as when a person is exasperated by unworthy or unjust treatment, by a mean action, or by a degrading accusation. [L. indignans, -antis, p. pr. of indignari to be indignant, disdain. See Indign.]
- sunny a.
- Of or pertaining to the sun; proceeding from, or resembling the sun; hence, shining; bright; brilliant; radiant.
- afar adv.
- At, to, or from a great distance; far away; -- often used with from preceding, or off following; as, he was seen from afar; I saw him afar off. [Pref. a-.(for on or of) + far.]
- shook v. t.
- To pack, as staves, in a shook.
- dismal a.
- Fatal; ill-omened; unlucky. [Formerly a noun; e. g., "I trow it was in the dismalle." Chaucer. Of uncertain origin; but perh. (as suggested by Skeat) from OF. disme, F. dîme, tithe, the phr]
- hoary a.
- White or whitish."The hoary willows."
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Little Girl Lost is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems of William Blake, Project Gutenberg ebook #574; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: William Blake, A Little Girl Lost, in Poems of William Blake (1783–1794), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #574, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/blake-poems/a-little-girl-lost.html, id L02022.
Form and metre
A Little Girl Lost is 34 lines in 7 stanzas. The rhyme scheme is AABBB, complete in 5 of its 7 stanzas. The metre is trochaic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%). 99% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.0 syllables. 24% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in trochaic trimeter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 AABB ageA · pageA · timeB · crimeB
- 2 AABBB goldA · coldA · brightB · lightB · delightB
- 3 AABBB pairA · careA · brightB · lightB · nightB
- 4 AA-BB dayA · playA · afar · nearB · fearB
- 5 AABBB sweetA · meetA · sleepB · deepB · weepB
- 6 AABBB whiteA · brightA · lookB · bookB · shookB
- 7 AABBB weakA · speakA · fearB · careB · hairB
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against trochaic trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Children of the future age, | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| Reading this indignant page, | 7 | /˘·˘/˘· |
| Know that in a former time | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Love, sweet love, was thought a crime. | 7 | ······· |
| In the age of gold, | 5 | ····· |
| Free from winter's cold, | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Youth and maiden bright, | 5 | ··/˘· |
| To the holy light, | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Naked in the sunny beams delight. | 9 | /˘··/˘·˘/ |
| Once a youthful pair, | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Filled with softest care, | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Met in garden bright | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Where the holy light | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Had just removed the curtains of the night. | 10 | ··˘/·/˘··· |
| Then, in rising day, | 5 | ··/˘· |
| On the grass they play; | 5 | ····· |
| Parents were afar, | 5 | /˘·˘/ |
| Strangers came not near, | 5 | /˘··· |
| And the maiden soon forgot her fear. | 9 | ··/˘·˘/·· |
| Tired with kisses sweet, | 5 | /·/˘· |
| They agree to meet | 5 | ·˘/·· |
| When the silent sleep | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Waves o'er heaven's deep, | 5 | ··/˘· |
| And the weary tired wanderers weep. | 8 | ··/˘//˘· |
| To her father white | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Came the maiden bright; | 5 | ··/˘· |
| But his loving look, | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Like the holy book | 5 | ··/˘· |
| All her tender limbs with terror shook. | 9 | ··/˘··/˘· |
| "Ona, pale and weak, | 5 | ˘/··· |
| To thy father speak! | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Oh the trembling fear! | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Oh the dismal care | 5 | ··/˘· |
| That shakes the blossoms of my hoary hair!" | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.