The Lyttel Boy
Sometime there ben a lyttel boyThat wolde not renne and play,And helpless like that little tykeBen allwais in the way."Goe, make you merrie with the rest,"His weary moder cried;But with a frown he catcht her gownAnd hong untill her side.
That boy did love his moder well,Which spake him faire, I ween;He loved to stand and hold her handAnd ken her with his een;His cosset bleated in the croft,His toys unheeded lay,--He wolde not goe, but, tarrying soe,Ben allwais in the way.
Godde loveth children and doth girdHis throne with soche as these,And He doth smile in plaisaunce whileThey cluster at His knees;And sometime, when He looked on earthAnd watched the bairns at play,He kenned with joy a lyttel boyBen allwais in the way.
And then a moder felt her heartHow that it ben to-torne,--She kissed eche day till she ben grayThe shoon he used to worn;No bairn let hold untill her gown,Nor played upon the floore,--Godde's was the joy; a lyttel boyBen in the way no more!
Words in this poem
- sometime adv.
- At a past time indefinitely referred to; once; formerly.
- renne v. t.
- To plunder; -- only in the phrase
- untill prep.
- To; unto; towards; -- used of material objects. [OE. until, ontil; un- (as in unto) + til till; cf. Dan. indtil, Sw. intill. See Unto, and Till, prep.]
- ween v. i.
- To think; to imagine; to fancy. [OE. wenen, AS. w, fr. w hope, expectation, opinion; akin to D. waan, OFries. w, OS. & OHG. wan, G. wahn delusion, Icel. van hope, expectation, Goth. w, and D. w]
- cosset n.
- A lamb reared without the aid of the dam. Hence: A pet, in general. [Cf. AS. cotsetla cottager, G. kossat, kothsasse, fr. kot, koth E. (cot) hut, and cf. also E. cade, a., cot a cade lamb.]
- godde v. t.
- To treat as a god; to idolize.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Lyttel Boy 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 Lyttel Boy, in A Little Book of Western Verse (1889), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9606, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/field-western-verse/the-lyttel-boy.html, id L24626.
Form and metre
The Lyttel Boy is 32 lines in 4 stanzas of 8 lines each. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%).
See other poems in iambic trimeter.
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 -A-A-B-B boy · playA · tyke · wayA · rest · criedB · gown · sideB
- 2 -A-A-B-B well · weenA · hand · eenA · croft · layB · soe · wayB
- 3 -A-A-B-B gird · theseA · while · kneesA · earth · playB · boy · wayB
- 4 -A-A---- heart · torneA · gray · wornA · gown · floore · boy · more
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Sometime there ben a lyttel boy | 8 | /······· |
| That wolde not renne and play, | 6 | ······ |
| And helpless like that little tyke | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Ben allwais in the way. | 6 | ······ |
| "Goe, make you merrie with the rest," | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| His weary moder cried; | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| But with a frown he catcht her gown | 8 | ········ |
| And hong untill her side. | 6 | ··˘/·· |
| That boy did love his moder well, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Which spake him faire, I ween; | 6 | ······ |
| He loved to stand and hold her hand | 8 | ········ |
| And ken her with his een; | 6 | ······ |
| His cosset bleated in the croft, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| His toys unheeded lay,-- | 6 | ··˘/˘· |
| He wolde not goe, but, tarrying soe, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Ben allwais in the way. | 6 | ······ |
| Godde loveth children and doth gird | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| His throne with soche as these, | 6 | ······ |
| And He doth smile in plaisaunce while | 8 | ········ |
| They cluster at His knees; | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| And sometime, when He looked on earth | 8 | ·/······ |
| And watched the bairns at play, | 6 | ······ |
| He kenned with joy a lyttel boy | 8 | ········ |
| Ben allwais in the way. | 6 | ······ |
| And then a moder felt her heart | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| How that it ben to-torne,-- | 6 | ······ |
| She kissed eche day till she ben gray | 9 | ··/˘····· |
| The shoon he used to worn; | 6 | ······ |
| No bairn let hold untill her gown, | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| Nor played upon the floore,-- | 6 | ······ |
| Godde's was the joy; a lyttel boy | 8 | ········ |
| Ben in the way no more! | 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.