A Child’s Fear
“Come to your poor old Mother,” she saidSmiling, and gathered to her breastWith her good hands her baby’s head;But the child’s eyes looked out oppressed.“Not old--not old--it isn’t true!Everyone may be old but you.”
Old?--Old, you see, is much too nearThe half-imagined thing that takesOur Mothers where they do not hearEven when their baby wakesAnd cries for comfort in the gloom--Babies to cry, and Mothers not come!
Within the safe arms round her curled,“Oh,” she half sobbed, “I wish you’d beThe youngest person in the world--How old are you? not old?” begged she,And caught a little panting breath,Then lay quite still and thought of death.
Words in this poem
- everyone n.
- Everybody; -- commonly separated, every one. [OE. everychon.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Child’s Fear is in the public domain. This text is taken from Sonnets and Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #56244; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Eleanor Farjeon, A Child’s Fear, in Sonnets and Poems (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #56244, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/farjeon-sonnets-poems/a-child-s-fear.html, id L21973.
Form and metre
A Child’s Fear is 18 lines in 3 stanzas of 6 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABABCC, complete in 2 of its 3 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%).
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
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 ABABCC saidA · breastB · headA · oppressedB · trueC · youC
- 2 ABAB-- nearA · takesB · hearA · wakesB · gloom · come
- 3 ABABCC curledA · beB · worldA · sheB · breathC · deathC
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| “Come to your poor old Mother,” she said | 9 | ·····/˘·· |
| Smiling, and gathered to her breast | 8 | /˘·/˘··· |
| With her good hands her baby’s head; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| But the child’s eyes looked out oppressed. | 8 | ······˘/ |
| “Not old--not old--it isn’t true! | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Everyone may be old but you.” | 8 | /˘······ |
| Old?--Old, you see, is much too near | 8 | ········ |
| The half-imagined thing that takes | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| Our Mothers where they do not hear | 8 | //˘····· |
| Even when their baby wakes | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| And cries for comfort in the gloom-- | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Babies to cry, and Mothers not come! | 9 | /˘···/˘·· |
| Within the safe arms round her curled, | 8 | ········ |
| “Oh,” she half sobbed, “I wish you’d be | 8 | ········ |
| The youngest person in the world-- | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| How old are you? not old?” begged she, | 8 | ········ |
| And caught a little panting breath, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Then lay quite still and thought of death. | 8 | ········ |
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.