Little Croodlin Doo
Ho, pretty bee, did you see my croodlin doo?Ho, little lamb, is she jinkin' on the lea?Ho, bonnie fairy, bring my dearie back to me--Got a lump o' sugar an' a posie for you,Only bring back my wee, wee croodlin doo!
Why, here you are, my little croodlin doo!Looked in er cradle, but didn't find you there,Looked f'r my wee, wee croodlin doo ever'where;Ben kind lonesome all er day withouten you;Where you ben, my little wee, wee croodlin doo?
Now you go balow, my little croodlin doo;Now you go rockaby ever so far,--Rockaby, rockaby, up to the starThat's winkin' an' blinkin' an' singin' to youAs you go balow, my wee, wee croodlin doo!
Words in this poem
- lonesome a.
- Secluded from society; not frequented by human beings; solitary.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Little Croodlin Doo 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 Croodlin Doo, in A Little Book of Western Verse (1889), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9606, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/field-western-verse/little-croodlin-doo.html, id L24667.
Form and metre
Little Croodlin Doo is 15 lines in 3 stanzas of 5 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABBAA. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 82%).
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.
- 1 ABBAA dooA · leaB · meB · youA · dooA
- 2 ABBAA dooA · thereB · ever'whereB · youA · dooA
- 3 ABBAA dooA · farB · starB · youA · dooA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Ho, pretty bee, did you see my croodlin doo? | 11 | ·/˘········ |
| Ho, little lamb, is she jinkin' on the lea? | 11 | ·/˘········ |
| Ho, bonnie fairy, bring my dearie back to me-- | 12 | ·/˘/˘··/˘··· |
| Got a lump o' sugar an' a posie for you, | 12 | ····/˘······ |
| Only bring back my wee, wee croodlin doo! | 10 | /˘········ |
| Why, here you are, my little croodlin doo! | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Looked in er cradle, but didn't find you there, | 11 | ···/˘·/˘··· |
| Looked f'r my wee, wee croodlin doo ever'where; | 11 | ··········· |
| Ben kind lonesome all er day withouten you; | 11 | ··/˘···˘/˘· |
| Where you ben, my little wee, wee croodlin doo? | 11 | ····/˘····· |
| Now you go balow, my little croodlin doo; | 11 | ···/˘·/˘··· |
| Now you go rockaby ever so far,-- | 10 | ······/˘·· |
| Rockaby, rockaby, up to the star | 10 | ·········· |
| That's winkin' an' blinkin' an' singin' to you | 11 | ·······/˘·· |
| As you go balow, my wee, wee croodlin doo! | 11 | ···/˘······ |
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.