By the Babe Unborn
If trees were tall and grasses short,As in some crazy tale,If here and there a sea were blueBeyond the breaking pale,
If a fixed fire hung in the airTo warm me one day through,If deep green hair grew on great hills,I know what I should do.
In dark I lie: dreaming that thereAre great eyes cold or kind,And twisted streets and silent doors,And living men behind.
Let storm-clouds come: better an hour,And leave to weep and fight,Than all the ages I have ruledThe empires of the night.
I think that if they gave me leaveWithin that world to stand,I would be good through all the dayI spent in fairyland.
They should not hear a word from meOf selfishness or scorn,If only I could find the door,If only I were born.
Words in this poem
- fairyland n.
- The imaginary land or abode of fairies.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
By the Babe Unborn 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, By the Babe Unborn, in The Wild Knight and Other Poems (1900), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12037, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/chesterton-wild-knight/by-the-babe-unborn.html, id L17116.
Form and metre
By the Babe Unborn is 24 lines in 6 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 95% 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. 29% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 short · taleA · blue · paleA
- 2 -A-A air · throughA · hills · doA
- 3 -A-A there · kindA · doors · behindA
- 4 -A-A hour · fightA · ruled · nightA
- 5 -A-A leave · standA · day · fairylandA
- 6 -A-A me · scornA · door · bornA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| If trees were tall and grasses short, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| As in some crazy tale, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| If here and there a sea were blue | 8 | ········ |
| Beyond the breaking pale, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| If a fixed fire hung in the air | 10 | ···˘/˘···· |
| To warm me one day through, | 6 | ······ |
| If deep green hair grew on great hills, | 8 | ········ |
| I know what I should do. | 6 | ······ |
| In dark I lie: dreaming that there | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| Are great eyes cold or kind, | 6 | ······ |
| And twisted streets and silent doors, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And living men behind. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Let storm-clouds come: better an hour, | 9 | ····/˘·/˘ |
| And leave to weep and fight, | 6 | ······ |
| Than all the ages I have ruled | 9 | ···/˘···˘ |
| The empires of the night. | 7 | ·/˘˘··· |
| I think that if they gave me leave | 8 | ········ |
| Within that world to stand, | 6 | ······ |
| I would be good through all the day | 8 | ········ |
| I spent in fairyland. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| They should not hear a word from me | 8 | ········ |
| Of selfishness or scorn, | 6 | ·/˘˘·· |
| If only I could find the door, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| If only I were born. | 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.