As children bid the guest good-night
As children bid the guest good-night,And then reluctant turn,My flowers raise their pretty lips,Then put their nightgowns on.
As children caper when they wake,Merry that it is morn,My flowers from a hundred cribsWill peep, and prance again.
Words in this poem
- morn n.
- The first part of the day; the morning; -- used chiefly in poetry. [OE. morwen, morgen, AS. morgen; akin to D. morgen, OS. morgan, G. morgen, Icel. morginn, morgunn, Sw. morgon, Dan. morgen, Goth. maúrgins. Cf. Morrow, Morning.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
As children bid the guest good-night is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems by Emily Dickinson, Three Series, Complete, Project Gutenberg ebook #12242; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Emily Dickinson, As children bid the guest good-night, in Poems (1890–1896), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12242, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dickinson-poems/as-children-bid-the-guest-good-night.html, id L18904.
Form and metre
As children bid the guest good-night is 8 lines in 2 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 95%).
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.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| As children bid the guest good-night, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| And then reluctant turn, | 6 | ··˘/˘· |
| My flowers raise their pretty lips, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Then put their nightgowns on. | 6 | ······ |
| As children caper when they wake, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Merry that it is morn, | 6 | /˘···· |
| My flowers from a hundred cribs | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Will peep, and prance again. | 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.