Lullaby; by the Sea
Fair is the castle up on the hill--Hushaby, sweet my own!The night is fair, and the waves are still,And the wind is singing to you and to meIn this lowly home beside the sea--Hushaby, sweet my own!
On yonder hill is store of wealth--Hushaby, sweet my own!And revellers drink to a little one's health;But you and I bide night and dayFor the other love that has sailed away--Hushaby, sweet my own!
See not, dear eyes, the forms that creepGhostlike, O my own!Out of the mists of the murmuring deep;Oh, see them not and make no cryTill the angels of death have passed us by--Hushaby, sweet my own!
Ah, little they reck of you and me--Hushaby, sweet my own!In our lonely home beside the sea;They seek the castle up on the hill,And there they will do their ghostly will--Hushaby, O my own!
Here by the sea a mother croons"Hushaby, sweet my own!"In yonder castle a mother swoonsWhile the angels go down to the misty deep,Bearing a little one fast asleep--Hushaby, sweet my own!
Words in this poem
- yonder adv.
- At a distance, but within view. [OE. yonder, ýonder; cf. OD. ginder, Goth. jaindr there. Yond, adv.]
- wealth n.
- Weal; welfare; prosperity; good. [OE. welthe, from wele; cf. D. weelde luxury. See Weal prosperity.]
- bide v. i.
- To dwell; to inhabit; to abide; to stay. [OE. biden, AS. bidan; akin to OHG. bitan, Goth. beidan, Icel. bi; perh. orig., to wait with trust, and akin to bid. See Bid, v. t., and cf. Abide.]
- ghostlike a.
- Like a ghost; ghastly.
- reck v. t.
- To make account of; to care for; to heed; to regard. [AS. reccan, remccan, to care for; akin to OS. rokian, OHG. ruochan, G. geruhen, Icel. rækja, also to E. reckon, rake an implement. See Rake, and cf. Reckon.]
- ghostly a.
- Relating to the soul; not carnal or secular; spiritual; as, a ghostly confessor. [OE. gastlich, gostlich, AS. gastlic. See Ghost.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Lullaby; by the Sea 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, Lullaby; by the Sea, in A Little Book of Western Verse (1889), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9606, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/field-western-verse/lullaby-by-the-sea.html, id L24646.
Form and metre
Lullaby; by the Sea is 30 lines in 5 stanzas of 6 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABACCB. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic tetrameter.
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 ABACCB hillA · ownB · stillA · meC · seaC · ownB
- 2 ABACCB wealthA · ownB · healthA · dayC · awayC · ownB
- 3 ABACCB creepA · ownB · deepA · cryC · byC · ownB
- 4 ABACCB meA · ownB · seaA · hillC · willC · ownB
- 5 ABACCB croonsA · ownB · swoonsA · deepC · asleepC · ownB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Fair is the castle up on the hill-- | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| Hushaby, sweet my own! | 6 | ······ |
| The night is fair, and the waves are still, | 9 | ········· |
| And the wind is singing to you and to me | 11 | ····/˘····· |
| In this lowly home beside the sea-- | 9 | ··/˘·˘/·· |
| Hushaby, sweet my own! | 6 | ······ |
| On yonder hill is store of wealth-- | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Hushaby, sweet my own! | 6 | ······ |
| And revellers drink to a little one's health; | 10 | ·/˘···/˘·· |
| But you and I bide night and day | 8 | ········ |
| For the other love that has sailed away-- | 10 | ··/˘····˘/ |
| Hushaby, sweet my own! | 6 | ······ |
| See not, dear eyes, the forms that creep | 8 | ········ |
| Ghostlike, O my own! | 5 | /···· |
| Out of the mists of the murmuring deep; | 9 | ······/˘· |
| Oh, see them not and make no cry | 8 | ········ |
| Till the angels of death have passed us by-- | 10 | ··/˘······ |
| Hushaby, sweet my own! | 6 | ······ |
| Ah, little they reck of you and me-- | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| Hushaby, sweet my own! | 6 | ······ |
| In our lonely home beside the sea; | 9 | ·//˘·˘/·· |
| They seek the castle up on the hill, | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| And there they will do their ghostly will-- | 9 | ······/˘· |
| Hushaby, O my own! | 6 | ······ |
| Here by the sea a mother croons | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| "Hushaby, sweet my own!" | 6 | ······ |
| In yonder castle a mother swoons | 9 | ·/˘/˘·/˘· |
| While the angels go down to the misty deep, | 11 | ··/˘····/˘· |
| Bearing a little one fast asleep-- | 9 | /˘·/˘··˘/ |
| Hushaby, sweet my own! | 6 | ······ |
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.