Mediaeval Eventide Song
Come hither, lyttel childe, and lie upon my breast to-night,For yonder fares an angell yclad in raimaunt white,And yonder sings ye angell as onely angells may,And his songe ben of a garden that bloometh farre awaye.
To them that have no lyttel childe Godde sometimes sendeth downA lyttel childe that ben a lyttel lambkyn of his owne;And if so bee they love that childe, He willeth it to staye,But elsewise, in His mercie He taketh it awaye.
And sometimes, though they love it, Godde yearneth for ye childe,And sendeth angells singing, whereby it ben beguiled;They fold their arms about ye lamb that croodleth at his play,And beare him to ye garden that bloometh farre awaye.
I wolde not lose ye lyttel lamb that Godde hath lent to me;If I colde sing that angell songe, how joysome I sholde bee!For, with mine arms about him, and my musick in his eare,What angell songe of paradize soever sholde I feare?
Soe come, my lyttel childe, and lie upon my breast to-night,For yonder fares an angell yclad in raimaunt white,And yonder sings that angell, as onely angells may,And his songe ben of a garden that bloometh farre awaye.
Words in this poem
- 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.
- yonder adv.
- At a distance, but within view. [OE. yonder, ýonder; cf. OD. ginder, Goth. jaindr there. Yond, adv.]
- farre n.
- A young pig, or a litter of pigs. [See Farrow.]
- godde v. t.
- To treat as a god; to idolize.
- joysome a.
- Causing joyfulness.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Mediaeval Eventide Song 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, Mediaeval Eventide Song, in A Little Book of Western Verse (1889), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9606, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/field-western-verse/mediaeval-eventide-song.html, id L24676.
Form and metre
Mediaeval Eventide Song is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is AABB, complete in 4 of its 5 stanzas. The metre is iambic heptameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 81%).
See other poems in iambic heptameter.
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 AABB nightA · whiteA · mayB · awayeB
- 2 AABB downA · owneA · stayeB · awayeB
- 3 --AA childe · beguiled · playA · awayeA
- 4 AABB meA · beeA · eareB · feareB
- 5 AABB nightA · whiteA · mayB · awayeB
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 heptameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Come hither, lyttel childe, and lie upon my breast to-night, | 14 | ·/˘··········· |
| For yonder fares an angell yclad in raimaunt white, | 13 | ·/˘··/˘······ |
| And yonder sings ye angell as onely angells may, | 13 | ·/˘··/˘·/˘/˘· |
| And his songe ben of a garden that bloometh farre awaye. | 14 | ······/˘·/˘··· |
| To them that have no lyttel childe Godde sometimes sendeth down | 14 | ·········/·/˘· |
| A lyttel childe that ben a lyttel lambkyn of his owne; | 14 | ·············· |
| And if so bee they love that childe, He willeth it to staye, | 14 | ·········/˘··· |
| But elsewise, in His mercie He taketh it awaye. | 13 | ·/˘·····/˘··· |
| And sometimes, though they love it, Godde yearneth for ye childe, | 13 | ·˘/·····/˘··· |
| And sendeth angells singing, whereby it ben beguiled; | 14 | ·/˘/˘/˘····˘/˘ |
| They fold their arms about ye lamb that croodleth at his play, | 14 | ·············· |
| And beare him to ye garden that bloometh farre awaye. | 13 | ·····/˘·/˘··· |
| I wolde not lose ye lyttel lamb that Godde hath lent to me; | 14 | ·············· |
| If I colde sing that angell songe, how joysome I sholde bee! | 14 | ·····/˘··/˘··· |
| For, with mine arms about him, and my musick in his eare, | 14 | ·········/˘··· |
| What angell songe of paradize soever sholde I feare? | 14 | ·/˘·····˘/˘··· |
| Soe come, my lyttel childe, and lie upon my breast to-night, | 14 | ·············· |
| For yonder fares an angell yclad in raimaunt white, | 13 | ·/˘··/˘······ |
| And yonder sings that angell, as onely angells may, | 13 | ·/˘··/˘·/˘/˘· |
| And his songe ben of a garden that bloometh farre awaye. | 14 | ······/˘·/˘··· |
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.