The Song of the Children
The World is ours till sunset,Holly and fire and snow;And the name of our dead brotherWho loved us long ago.
The grown folk mighty and cunning,They write his name in gold;But we can tell a littleOf the million tales he told.
He taught them laws and watchwords,To preach and struggle and pray;But he taught us deep in the hayfieldThe games that the angels play.
Had he stayed here for ever,Their world would be wise as ours--And the king be cutting capers,And the priest be picking flowers.
But the dark day came: they gathered:On their faces we could seeThey had taken and slain our brother,And hanged him on a tree.
Words in this poem
- folk n.
- In Anglo-Saxon times, the people of a group of townships or villages; a community; a tribe. [AS. folc; akin to D. volk, OS. & OHG. folk, G. volk, Icel. f, Sw. & Dan. folk, Lith. pulkas crowd, and perh. to E. follow.]
- hayfield n.
- A field where grass for hay has been cut; a meadow.
- stayed a.
- Staid; fixed; settled; sober; -- now written staid. See Staid.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Song of the Children 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, The Song of the Children, in The Wild Knight and Other Poems (1900), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12037, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/chesterton-wild-knight/the-song-of-the-children.html, id L17128.
Form and metre
The Song of the Children is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 80%). 89% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.5 syllables. 9 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 20% 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 sunset · snowA · brother · agoA
- 2 -A-A cunning · goldA · little · toldA
- 3 -A-A watchwords · prayA · hayfield · playA
- 4 -A-A ever · oursA · capers · flowersA
- 5 -A-A gathered · seeA · brother · treeA
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 World is ours till sunset, | 8 | ···/˘·/· |
| Holly and fire and snow; | 7 | /˘·/˘·· |
| And the name of our dead brother | 9 | ····/˘·/˘ |
| Who loved us long ago. | 6 | ····˘/ |
| The grown folk mighty and cunning, | 8 | ···/˘·/˘ |
| They write his name in gold; | 6 | ······ |
| But we can tell a little | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Of the million tales he told. | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| He taught them laws and watchwords, | 7 | ·····/· |
| To preach and struggle and pray; | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| But he taught us deep in the hayfield | 9 | ·······/· |
| The games that the angels play. | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Had he stayed here for ever, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Their world would be wise as ours-- | 8 | ······/˘ |
| And the king be cutting capers, | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| And the priest be picking flowers. | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| But the dark day came: they gathered: | 9 | ······/˘˘ |
| On their faces we could see | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| They had taken and slain our brother, | 10 | ··/˘··/˘/˘ |
| And hanged him on a tree. | 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.