Child and Mother
O mother-my-love, if you'll give me your hand,And go where I ask you to wander,I will lead you away to a beautiful land,--The Dreamland that's waiting out yonder.We'll walk in a sweet posie-garden out there,Where moonlight and starlight are streaming,And the flowers and the birds are filling the airWith the fragrance and music of dreaming.
There'll be no little tired-out boy to undress,No questions or cares to perplex you,There'll be no little bruises or bumps to caress,Nor patching of stockings to vex you;For I'll rock you away on a silver-dew streamAnd sing you asleep when you're weary,And no one shall know of our beautiful dreamBut you and your own little dearie.
And when I am tired I'll nestle my headIn the bosom that's soothed me so often,And the wide-awake stars shall sing, in my stead,A song which our dreaming shall soften.So, Mother-my-Love, let me take your dear hand,And away through the starlight we'll wander,--Away through the mist to the beautiful land,--The Dreamland that's waiting out yonder.
Words in this poem
- dreamland n.
- An unreal, delightful country such as in sometimes pictured in dreams; region of fancies; fairyland.
- yonder adv.
- At a distance, but within view. [OE. yonder, ýonder; cf. OD. ginder, Goth. jaindr there. Yond, adv.]
- starlight n.
- The light given by the stars.
- streaming a.
- Sending forth streams.
- caress n.
- An act of endearment; any act or expression of affection; an embracing, or touching, with tenderness. [F. caresse, It. carezza, LL. caritia dearness, fr. L. carus dear. See Charity.]
- 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,]
- nestle v. i.
- To make and occupy a nest; to nest. [AS. nestlian.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Child and Mother 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, Child and Mother, in A Little Book of Western Verse (1889), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9606, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/field-western-verse/child-and-mother.html, id L24673.
Form and metre
Child and Mother is 24 lines in 3 stanzas of 8 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABABCDCD, complete in 2 of its 3 stanzas. The metre is anapaestic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%).
See other poems in anapaestic trimeter.
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 ABABCDCD handA · wanderB · landA · yonderB · thereC · streamingD · airC · dreamingD
- 2 ABABC-C- undressA · youB · caressA · youB · streamC · weary · dreamC · dearie
- 3 ABABCDCD headA · oftenB · steadA · softenB · handC · wanderD · landC · yonderD
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| O mother-my-love, if you'll give me your hand, | 11 | ·/˘········ |
| And go where I ask you to wander, | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| I will lead you away to a beautiful land,-- | 11 | ····˘/··/˘· |
| The Dreamland that's waiting out yonder. | 9 | ·/··/˘·/˘ |
| We'll walk in a sweet posie-garden out there, | 11 | ·······/˘·· |
| Where moonlight and starlight are streaming, | 9 | ·/··/··/˘ |
| And the flowers and the birds are filling the air | 11 | ··/····/˘·· |
| With the fragrance and music of dreaming. | 10 | ··/˘·/˘·/˘ |
| There'll be no little tired-out boy to undress, | 12 | /˘··/˘/···˘/ |
| No questions or cares to perplex you, | 9 | ·/˘···˘/· |
| There'll be no little bruises or bumps to caress, | 13 | /˘··/˘/˘···˘/ |
| Nor patching of stockings to vex you; | 9 | ·/˘·/˘··· |
| For I'll rock you away on a silver-dew stream | 12 | ····˘/··/˘·· |
| And sing you asleep when you're weary, | 9 | ···˘/··/˘ |
| And no one shall know of our beautiful dream | 10 | ······//˘· |
| But you and your own little dearie. | 9 | ·····/˘/˘ |
| And when I am tired I'll nestle my head | 10 | ····/·/˘·· |
| In the bosom that's soothed me so often, | 10 | ··/˘····/˘ |
| And the wide-awake stars shall sing, in my stead, | 11 | ···˘/······ |
| A song which our dreaming shall soften. | 9 | ···//˘·/˘ |
| So, Mother-my-Love, let me take your dear hand, | 11 | ·/˘········ |
| And away through the starlight we'll wander,-- | 10 | ·˘/··/··/˘ |
| Away through the mist to the beautiful land,-- | 10 | ˘/·····/˘· |
| The Dreamland that's waiting out yonder. | 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.