Little Boy Blue
The little toy dog is covered with dust,But sturdy and stanch he stands;And the little toy soldier is red with rust,And his musket molds in his hands.Time was when the little toy dog was newAnd the soldier was passing fair,And that was the time when our Little Boy BlueKissed them and put them there.
"Now, don't you go till I come," he said,"And don't you make any noise!"So toddling off to his trundle-bedHe dreamed of the pretty toys.And as he was dreaming, an angel songAwakened our Little Boy Blue,--Oh, the years are many, the years are long,But the little toy friends are true.
Ay, faithful to Little Boy Blue they stand,Each in the same old place,Awaiting the touch of a little hand,The smile of a little face.And they wonder, as waiting these long years through,In the dust of that little chair,What has become of our Little Boy BlueSince he kissed them and put them there.
About this text
Little Boy Blue 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, Little Boy Blue, in A Little Book of Western Verse (1889), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9606, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/field-western-verse/little-boy-blue.html, id L24622.
Form and metre
Little Boy Blue is 24 lines in 3 stanzas of 8 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABABCDCD. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 75%).
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 ABABCDCD dustA · standsB · rustA · handsB · newC · fairD · blueC · thereD
- 2 ABABCDCD saidA · noiseB · bedA · toysB · songC · blueD · longC · trueD
- 3 ABABCDCD standA · placeB · handA · faceB · throughC · chairD · blueC · thereD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| The little toy dog is covered with dust, | 10 | ·/˘···/˘·· |
| But sturdy and stanch he stands; | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| And the little toy soldier is red with rust, | 11 | ··/˘·/˘···· |
| And his musket molds in his hands. | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| Time was when the little toy dog was new | 10 | ····/˘···· |
| And the soldier was passing fair, | 8 | ··/˘·/˘· |
| And that was the time when our Little Boy Blue | 11 | ······//˘·· |
| Kissed them and put them there. | 7 | ·˘····· |
| "Now, don't you go till I come," he said, | 9 | ········· |
| "And don't you make any noise!" | 7 | ····/˘· |
| So toddling off to his trundle-bed | 9 | ·/˘···/˘· |
| He dreamed of the pretty toys. | 8 | ··˘··/˘· |
| And as he was dreaming, an angel song | 10 | ····/˘·/˘· |
| Awakened our Little Boy Blue,-- | 8 | ˘/˘//˘·· |
| Oh, the years are many, the years are long, | 9 | ····/···· |
| But the little toy friends are true. | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| Ay, faithful to Little Boy Blue they stand, | 10 | ·/˘·/˘···· |
| Each in the same old place, | 6 | ······ |
| Awaiting the touch of a little hand, | 10 | ˘/˘····/˘· |
| The smile of a little face. | 7 | ····/˘· |
| And they wonder, as waiting these long years through, | 11 | ··/˘·/˘···· |
| In the dust of that little chair, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| What has become of our Little Boy Blue | 10 | ··˘/·//˘·· |
| Since he kissed them and put them there. | 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.