Talitha Cumi
OUR little one was sick, and the sickness pressed her sore.We sat beside her bed, and we felt her hands and head,And in our hearts we prayed this one prayer o’er and o’er:“Come to us, Christ the Lord; utter thine old-time word,‘Talitha cumi!’”
And as the night wore on, and the fever flamed more high,And a new look burned and grew in the eyes of tender blue,Still louder in our hearts uprose the voiceless cry,“O Lord of love and might, say once again to-night,‘Talitha cumi!’”
And then, and then—he came; we saw him not, but felt.And he bent above the child, and she ceased to moan, and smiled;And although we heard no sound, as around the bed we knelt,Our souls were made aware of a mandate in the air,“Talitha cumi!”
And as at dawn’s fair summons faded the morning star,Holding the Lord’s hand close, the child we loved arose,And with him took her way to a country far away;And we would not call her dead, for it was his voice that said,“Talitha cumi!”
Words in this poem
- voiceless a.
- Having no voice, utterance, or vote; silent; mute; dumb.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Talitha Cumi is in the public domain. This text is taken from A Few More Verses, Project Gutenberg ebook #49518; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Susan Coolidge, Talitha Cumi, in A Few More Verses (1889), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #49518, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/coolidge-few-more-verses/talitha-cumi.html, id L23412.
Form and metre
Talitha Cumi is 20 lines in 4 stanzas of 5 lines each. The metre is iambic heptameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 77%).
See other poems in iambic heptameter.
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.
- 2 A-A-- highA · blue · cryA · night · cumi
- 3 A-A-- feltA · smiled · kneltA · air · cumi
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 iambic heptameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| OUR little one was sick, and the sickness pressed her sore. | 13 | //˘·····/˘··· |
| We sat beside her bed, and we felt her hands and head, | 13 | ··˘/········· |
| And in our hearts we prayed this one prayer o’er and o’er: | 12 | ··/········· |
| “Come to us, Christ the Lord; utter thine old-time word, | 12 | ······/˘···· |
| ‘Talitha cumi!’” | 5 | /˘˘·· |
| And as the night wore on, and the fever flamed more high, | 13 | ········/˘··· |
| And a new look burned and grew in the eyes of tender blue, | 14 | ···········/˘· |
| Still louder in our hearts uprose the voiceless cry, | 11 | ·/·/····/˘· |
| “O Lord of love and might, say once again to-night, | 12 | ········˘/·· |
| ‘Talitha cumi!’” | 5 | /˘˘·· |
| And then, and then—he came; we saw him not, but felt. | 12 | ············ |
| And he bent above the child, and she ceased to moan, and smiled; | 14 | ·············· |
| And although we heard no sound, as around the bed we knelt, | 14 | ·············· |
| Our souls were made aware of a mandate in the air, | 13 | /···˘/··/···· |
| “Talitha cumi!” | 5 | /˘˘·· |
| And as at dawn’s fair summons faded the morning star, | 13 | ·····/˘/˘·/˘· |
| Holding the Lord’s hand close, the child we loved arose, | 12 | /˘········˘/ |
| And with him took her way to a country far away; | 13 | ········/˘·˘/ |
| And we would not call her dead, for it was his voice that said, | 14 | ·············· |
| “Talitha cumi!” | 5 | /˘˘·· |
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.