The Little Peach
A little peach in the orchard grew,--A little peach of emerald hue;Warmed by the sun and wet by the dew,It grew.
One day, passing that orchard through,That little peach dawned on the viewOf Johnny Jones and his sister Sue--Them two.
Up at that peach a club they threw--Down from the stem on which it grewFell that peach of emerald hue.Mon Dieu!
John took a bite and Sue a chew,And then the trouble began to brew,--Trouble the doctor couldn't subdue.Too true!
Under the turf where the daisies grewThey planted John and his sister Sue,And their little souls to the angels flew,--Boo hoo!
What of that peach of the emerald hue,Warmed by the sun, and wet by the dew?Ah, well, its mission on earth is through.Adieu!
Words in this poem
- johnny n.
- A familiar diminutive of John.
- brew v. t.
- To boil or seethe; to cook. [OE. brewen, AS. breówan; akin to D. brouwen, OHG. priuwan, MHG. briuwen, br, G. brauen, Icel. brugga, Sw. brygga, Dan. brygge, and perh. to L. defrutum must boi]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Little Peach 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, The Little Peach, in A Little Book of Western Verse (1889), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9606, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/field-western-verse/the-little-peach.html, id L24636.
Form and metre
The Little Peach is 24 lines in 6 stanzas of 4 lines each. It is in rhyming couplets: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 80%).
See other poems in octosyllabic couplets, 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 AAAA grewA · hueA · dewA · grewA
- 2 AAAA throughA · viewA · sueA · twoA
- 3 AAAA threwA · grewA · hueA · dieuA
- 4 AAAA chewA · brewA · subdueA · trueA
- 5 AAAA grewA · sueA · flewA · hooA
- 6 AAAA hueA · dewA · throughA · adieuA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| A little peach in the orchard grew,-- | 9 | ·/˘···/˘· |
| A little peach of emerald hue; | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Warmed by the sun and wet by the dew, | 9 | ········· |
| It grew. | 2 | ·· |
| One day, passing that orchard through, | 8 | ··/˘·/˘· |
| That little peach dawned on the view | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Of Johnny Jones and his sister Sue-- | 9 | ·/˘···/˘· |
| Them two. | 2 | ·· |
| Up at that peach a club they threw-- | 8 | ········ |
| Down from the stem on which it grew | 8 | ········ |
| Fell that peach of emerald hue. | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Mon Dieu! | 2 | ·· |
| John took a bite and Sue a chew, | 8 | ········ |
| And then the trouble began to brew,-- | 9 | ···/˘˘/·· |
| Trouble the doctor couldn't subdue. | 9 | /˘·/˘/˘˘/ |
| Too true! | 2 | ·· |
| Under the turf where the daisies grew | 9 | ······/˘· |
| They planted John and his sister Sue, | 9 | ·/˘···/˘· |
| And their little souls to the angels flew,-- | 10 | ··/˘···/˘· |
| Boo hoo! | 2 | ·· |
| What of that peach of the emerald hue, | 9 | ······/˘· |
| Warmed by the sun, and wet by the dew? | 9 | ········· |
| Ah, well, its mission on earth is through. | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| Adieu! | 2 | ˘/ |
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.