"Innocent Child and Snow-White Flower"
Innocent child and snow-white flower!Well are ye paired in your opening hour.Thus should the pure and the lovely meet,Stainless with stainless, and sweet with sweet.
White as those leaves, just blown apart,Are the folds of thy own young heart;Guilty passion and cankering careNever have left their traces there.
Artless one! though thou gazest nowO'er the white blossom with earnest brow,Soon will it tire thy childish eye;Fair as it is, thou wilt throw it by.
Throw it aside in thy weary hour,Throw to the ground the fair white flower;Yet, as thy tender years depart,Keep that white and innocent heart.
Words in this poem
- stainless a.
- Free from stain; immaculate.
- depart v. i.
- To part; to divide; to separate. [OE. departen to divide, part, depart, F. départir to divide, distribute, se départir to separate one's self, depart; pref. dé- (L. de) + partir to part, depart,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
"Innocent Child and Snow-White Flower" is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems by William Cullen Bryant, Project Gutenberg ebook #16341; 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 Cullen Bryant, "Innocent Child and Snow-White Flower", in Poems (1821–1876), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16341, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bryant-poems/innocent-child-and-snow-white-flower.html, id L07316.
Form and metre
"Innocent Child and Snow-White Flower" is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes AABB. The metre is dactylic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 81%). 77% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.8 syllables. 4 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 12% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in dactylic 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 flowerA · hourA · meetB · sweetB
- 2 AABB apartA · heartA · careB · thereB
- 3 AABB nowA · browA · eyeB · byB
- 4 AABB hourA · flowerA · departB · heartB
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 dactylic trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Innocent child and snow-white flower! | 9 | /˘˘····/˘ |
| Well are ye paired in your opening hour. | 11 | ······/˘˘/˘ |
| Thus should the pure and the lovely meet, | 9 | ······/˘· |
| Stainless with stainless, and sweet with sweet. | 9 | /˘·/˘···· |
| White as those leaves, just blown apart, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Are the folds of thy own young heart; | 8 | ········ |
| Guilty passion and cankering care | 9 | /˘/˘·/˘˘· |
| Never have left their traces there. | 8 | /˘···/˘· |
| Artless one! though thou gazest now | 8 | /˘······ |
| O'er the white blossom with earnest brow, | 9 | ···/˘·/˘· |
| Soon will it tire thy childish eye; | 9 | ···/˘·/˘· |
| Fair as it is, thou wilt throw it by. | 9 | ········· |
| Throw it aside in thy weary hour, | 10 | ··˘/··/˘/˘ |
| Throw to the ground the fair white flower; | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| Yet, as thy tender years depart, | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| Keep that white and innocent heart. | 8 | ····/˘˘· |
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.