The Poet and the Baby
How's a man to write a sonnet, can you tell,--How's he going to weave the dim, poetic spell,--When a-toddling on the floorIs the muse he must adore,And this muse he loves, not wisely, but too well?
Now, to write a sonnet, every one allows,One must always be as quiet as a mouse;But to write one seems to meQuite superfluous to be,When you 've got a little sonnet in the house.
Just a dainty little poem, true and fine,That is full of love and life in every line,Earnest, delicate, and sweet,Altogether so completeThat I wonder what's the use of writing mine.
Words in this poem
- sonnet n.
- A short poem, -- usually amatory. [F., fr. It. sonetto, fr. suono a sound, a song, fr. L. sonus a sound. See Sound noise.]
- adore v. t.
- To worship with profound reverence; to pay divine honors to; to honor as deity or as divine. [OE. aouren, anouren, adoren, OF. aorer, adorer, F. adorer, fr. L. adorare; ad + orare to speak, pray, os, oris, mouth. In OE. confused with honor, the French pr]
- dainty n.
- Value; estimation; the gratification or pleasure taken in anything. [OE. deinie, dainte, deintie, deyntee, OF. deintié delicacy, orig., dignity, honor, fr. L. dignitas, fr. dignus worthy. See Deign, and cf. Dignity.]
- altogether adv.
- All together; conjointly. [OE. altogedere; al all + togedere together. See Together.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Poet and the Baby 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 Poet and the Baby, in The Complete Poems (1893–1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18338, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dunbar-poems/the-poet-and-the-baby.html, id L00639.
Form and metre
The Poet and the Baby is 15 lines in 3 stanzas of 5 lines each. The rhyme scheme is AABBA, complete in 2 of its 3 stanzas; the stanza is the Limerick. The metre is trochaic hexameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%). 99% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.3 syllables. 20% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other limericks, other poems in trochaic hexameter.
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 AABBA tellA · spellA · floorB · adoreB · wellA
- 2 -ABBA allows · mouseA · meB · beB · houseA
- 3 AABBA fineA · lineA · sweetB · completeB · mineA
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 trochaic hexameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| How's a man to write a sonnet, can you tell,-- | 11 | ······/˘··· |
| How's he going to weave the dim, poetic spell,-- | 11 | ··/····˘/˘· |
| When a-toddling on the floor | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Is the muse he must adore, | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| And this muse he loves, not wisely, but too well? | 11 | ······/˘··· |
| Now, to write a sonnet, every one allows, | 11 | ····/˘/˘·˘/ |
| One must always be as quiet as a mouse; | 10 | ··/···/··· |
| But to write one seems to me | 7 | ······· |
| Quite superfluous to be, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| When you 've got a little sonnet in the house. | 12 | ·····/˘/˘··· |
| Just a dainty little poem, true and fine, | 10 | ··/˘/˘/··· |
| That is full of love and life in every line, | 11 | ········/˘· |
| Earnest, delicate, and sweet, | 7 | /˘/˘˘·· |
| Altogether so complete | 7 | ·˘/˘·˘/ |
| That I wonder what's the use of writing mine. | 11 | ··/˘····/˘· |
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.