The Death of the First Born
Cover him over with daisies whiteAnd eke with the poppies red,Sit with me here by his couch to-night,For the First-Born, Love, is dead.
Poor little fellow, he seemed so fairAs he lay in my jealous arms;Silent and cold he is lying thereStripped of his darling charms.
Lusty and strong he had grown forsooth,Sweet with an infinite grace,Proud in the force of his conquering youth,Laughter alight in his face.
Oh, but the blast, it was cruel and keen,And ah, but the chill it was rare;The look of the winter-kissed flow'r you've seenWhen meadows and fields were bare.
Can you not wake from this white, cold sleepAnd speak to me once again?True that your slumber is deep, so deep,But deeper by far is my pain.
Cover him over with daisies white,And eke with the poppies red,Sit with me here by his couch to-night,For the First-Born, Love, is dead.
Words in this poem
- forsooth v. t.
- To address respectfully with the term forsooth.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Death of the First Born is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar, Project Gutenberg ebook #18338; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Paul Laurence Dunbar, The Death of the First Born, in The Complete Poems (1893–1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18338, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dunbar-poems/the-death-of-the-first-born.html, id L00855.
Form and metre
The Death of the First Born is 24 lines in 6 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. 92% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.1 syllables. 21% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 ABAB whiteA · redB · nightA · deadB
- 2 ABAB fairA · armsB · thereA · charmsB
- 3 ABAB forsoothA · graceB · youthA · faceB
- 4 ABAB keenA · rareB · seenA · bareB
- 5 ABAB sleepA · againB · deepA · painB
- 6 ABAB whiteA · redB · nightA · deadB
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Cover him over with daisies white | 8 | /˘···/˘· |
| And eke with the poppies red, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Sit with me here by his couch to-night, | 9 | ········· |
| For the First-Born, Love, is dead. | 7 | ······· |
| Poor little fellow, he seemed so fair | 9 | ·/˘/˘···· |
| As he lay in my jealous arms; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Silent and cold he is lying there | 9 | /˘····/˘· |
| Stripped of his darling charms. | 7 | ·˘··/˘· |
| Lusty and strong he had grown forsooth, | 9 | /˘·····˘/ |
| Sweet with an infinite grace, | 7 | ···/˘˘· |
| Proud in the force of his conquering youth, | 9 | ······/˘· |
| Laughter alight in his face. | 7 | /˘˘/··· |
| Oh, but the blast, it was cruel and keen, | 9 | ······/·· |
| And ah, but the chill it was rare; | 8 | ········ |
| The look of the winter-kissed flow'r you've seen | 10 | ····/˘···· |
| When meadows and fields were bare. | 7 | ·/····· |
| Can you not wake from this white, cold sleep | 9 | ········· |
| And speak to me once again? | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| True that your slumber is deep, so deep, | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| But deeper by far is my pain. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Cover him over with daisies white, | 8 | /˘···/˘· |
| And eke with the poppies red, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Sit with me here by his couch to-night, | 9 | ········· |
| For the First-Born, Love, is dead. | 7 | ······· |
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.