Ailsie, My Bairn
Lie in my arms, Ailsie, my bairn,--Lie in my arms and dinna greit;Long time been past syn I kenned you last,But my harte been allwais the same, my swete.
Ailsie, I colde not say you ill,For out of the mist of your bitter tears,And the prayers that rise from your bonnie eyesCometh a promise of oder yeres.
I mind the time when we lost our bairn,--Do you ken that time? A wambling tot,You wandered away ane simmer day,And we hunted and called, and found you not.
I promised God, if He'd send you back,Alwaies to keepe and to love you, childe;And I'm thinking again of that promise whenI see you creep out of the storm sae wild.
You came back then as you come back now,--Your kirtle torn and your face all white;And you stood outside and knockit and cried,Just as you, dearie, did to-night.
Oh, never a word of the cruel wrang,That has faded your cheek and dimmed your ee;And never a word of the fause, fause lord,--Only a smile and a kiss for me.
Lie in my arms, as long, long syne,And sleepe on my bosom, deere wounded thing,--I'm nae sae glee as I used to be,Or I'd sing you the songs I used to sing.
But Ile kemb my fingers thro' y'r haire,And nane shall know, but you and I,Of the love and the faith that came to us baithWhen Ailsie, my bairn, came home to die.
Words in this poem
- simmer v. i.
- To boil gently, or with a gentle hissing; to begin to boil. [Prov. E. also simper; -- an onomatopoetic word.]
- childe n.
- A cognomen formerly prefixed to his name by the oldest son, until he succeeded to his ancestral titles, or was knighted; as, Childe Roland.
- kirtle n.
- A garment varying in form and use at different times, and worn doth by men and women. [OE. kirtel, curtel, AS. cyrtel; skin to Icel. kyrtill, Sw. kjortel, Dan. kiortel, kiole.]
- syne adv.
- Afterwards; since; ago. R. of Brunne. [See Since.]
- glee n.
- Music; minstrelsy; entertainment.
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Ailsie, My Bairn is in the public domain. This text is taken from A Little Book of Western Verse, Project Gutenberg ebook #9606; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Eugene Field, Ailsie, My Bairn, in A Little Book of Western Verse (1889), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9606, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/field-western-verse/ailsie-my-bairn.html, id L24649.
Form and metre
Ailsie, My Bairn is 32 lines in 8 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 74%).
See other poems in iambic 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.
- 2 -A-A ill · tearsA · eyes · yeresA
- 3 -A-A bairn · totA · day · notA
- 5 -A-A now · whiteA · cried · nightA
- 6 -A-A wrang · eeA · lord · meA
- 7 -A-A syne · thingA · be · singA
- 8 -A-A haire · iA · baith · dieA
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Lie in my arms, Ailsie, my bairn,-- | 8 | ········ |
| Lie in my arms and dinna greit; | 8 | ········ |
| Long time been past syn I kenned you last, | 10 | ·······˘·· |
| But my harte been allwais the same, my swete. | 10 | ·········· |
| Ailsie, I colde not say you ill, | 8 | ········ |
| For out of the mist of your bitter tears, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| And the prayers that rise from your bonnie eyes | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Cometh a promise of oder yeres. | 9 | /˘·/˘·/˘· |
| I mind the time when we lost our bairn,-- | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Do you ken that time? A wambling tot, | 10 | ······/˘˘· |
| You wandered away ane simmer day, | 10 | ·/˘˘˘/·/˘· |
| And we hunted and called, and found you not. | 10 | ··/˘······ |
| I promised God, if He'd send you back, | 10 | ·/˘˘······ |
| Alwaies to keepe and to love you, childe; | 8 | ········ |
| And I'm thinking again of that promise when | 11 | ··/˘˘/··/˘· |
| I see you creep out of the storm sae wild. | 10 | ·········· |
| You came back then as you come back now,-- | 9 | ········· |
| Your kirtle torn and your face all white; | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| And you stood outside and knockit and cried, | 10 | ···//····· |
| Just as you, dearie, did to-night. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Oh, never a word of the cruel wrang, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| That has faded your cheek and dimmed your ee; | 10 | ··/˘······ |
| And never a word of the fause, fause lord,-- | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Only a smile and a kiss for me. | 9 | /˘······· |
| Lie in my arms, as long, long syne, | 8 | ········ |
| And sleepe on my bosom, deere wounded thing,-- | 10 | ····/˘·/˘· |
| I'm nae sae glee as I used to be, | 9 | ········· |
| Or I'd sing you the songs I used to sing. | 10 | ·········· |
| But Ile kemb my fingers thro' y'r haire, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| And nane shall know, but you and I, | 8 | ········ |
| Of the love and the faith that came to us baith | 11 | ··········· |
| When Ailsie, my bairn, came home to die. | 9 | ········· |
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.