A Christmas Carol
The Christ-child lay on Mary's lap,His hair was like a light.(O weary, weary were the world,But here is all aright.)
The Christ-child lay on Mary's breast,His hair was like a star.(O stern and cunning are the kings,But here the true hearts are.)
The Christ-child lay on Mary's heart,His hair was like a fire.(O weary, weary is the world,But here the world's desire.)
The Christ-child stood at Mary's knee,His hair was like a crown,And all the flowers looked up at him.And all the stars looked down.
Words in this poem
- aright adv.
- Rightly; correctly; in a right way or form; without mistake or crime; as, to worship God aright. [Pref. a- + right.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Christmas Carol is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Wild Knight and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #12037; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: G. K. Chesterton, A Christmas Carol, in The Wild Knight and Other Poems (1900), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12037, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/chesterton-wild-knight/a-christmas-carol.html, id L17140.
Form and metre
A Christmas Carol is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.2 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
See other poems in common measure.
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 -A-A lap · lightA · world · arightA
- 2 -A-A breast · starA · kings · areA
- 3 -A-A heart · fireA · world · desireA
- 4 -A-A knee · crownA · him · downA
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 common measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| The Christ-child lay on Mary's lap, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| His hair was like a light. | 6 | ······ |
| (O weary, weary were the world, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| But here is all aright.) | 6 | ····˘/ |
| The Christ-child lay on Mary's breast, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| His hair was like a star. | 6 | ······ |
| (O stern and cunning are the kings, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| But here the true hearts are.) | 6 | ······ |
| The Christ-child lay on Mary's heart, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| His hair was like a fire. | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| (O weary, weary is the world, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| But here the world's desire.) | 7 | ····˘/˘ |
| The Christ-child stood at Mary's knee, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| His hair was like a crown, | 6 | ······ |
| And all the flowers looked up at him. | 8 | ···/···· |
| And all the stars looked down. | 6 | ······ |
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.