A Manger Song
Whence got ye your soft, soft eyes of the mother, O soft-eyed cow?and that was how.We sheltered her that was shelterless for a little while,We watched the milking Babe at her breast, and we saw her smile.Even as we she lay upon straw, and even as weTook her sleep in the dark of the manger unfretfully,And when the dawn of the strange new Star discovered her thus,The ray that was destined for her and for Him fell also on us;The light passed into her eyes and ours, and full in its floodWe were first to behold the first mothering look of the Mother of God.
Words in this poem
- shelterless a.
- Destitute of shelter or protection.
- babe n.
- An infant; a young child of either sex; a baby. [Cf. Ir. bab, baban, W. baban, maban.]
- manger n.
- A trough or open box in which fodder is placed for horses or cattle to eat. [F. mangeoire, fr. manger to eat, fr. L. manducare, fr. mandere to chew. Cf. Mandible, Manducate.]
- mothering n.
- A rural custom in England, of visiting one's parents on Midlent Sunday, -- supposed to have been originally visiting the mother church to make offerings at the high altar.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Manger Song 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 Manger Song, in Sonnets and Poems (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #56244, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/farjeon-sonnets-poems/a-manger-song.html, id L21961.
Form and metre
A Manger Song is 10 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 60% of the lines. The metre is anapaestic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 72%).
See other poems in rhyming couplets, other poems in anapaestic pentameter.
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 AABB--CC-- cowA · howA · whileB · smileB · we · unfretfully · thusC · usC · flood · god
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 anapaestic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Whence got ye your soft, soft eyes of the mother, O soft-eyed cow? | 15 | ·········/˘···· |
| and that was how. | 4 | ···· |
| We sheltered her that was shelterless for a little while, | 14 | ·/˘···/˘˘··/˘· |
| We watched the milking Babe at her breast, and we saw her smile. | 14 | ···/˘········· |
| Even as we she lay upon straw, and even as we | 14 | /˘········/˘·· |
| Took her sleep in the dark of the manger unfretfully, | 14 | ········/˘···· |
| And when the dawn of the strange new Star discovered her thus, | 14 | ·········˘/˘·· |
| The ray that was destined for her and for Him fell also on us; | 16 | ····/˘······/˘·· |
| The light passed into her eyes and ours, and full in its flood | 14 | ········/····· |
| We were first to behold the first mothering look of the Mother of God. | 17 | ····˘/··/˘···/˘·· |
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.