To a Little Maid by a Policeman
COME with me, little maid,Nay, shrink not, thus afraid—I’ll harm thee not!Fly not, my love, from me—I have a home for thee—A fairy grot,Where mortal eyeCan rarely pry,There shall thy dwelling be!
List to me, while I tellThe pleasures of that cell,Oh, little maid!What though its couch be rude,Homely the only foodWithin its shade?No thought of careCan enter there,No vulgar swain intrude!
Come with me, little maid,Come to the rocky shadeI love to sing;Live with us, maiden rare—Come, for we “want” thee there,Thou elfin thing,To work thy spell,In some cool cellIn stately Pentonville!
Words in this poem
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- homely a.
- Belonging to, or having the characteristics of, home; domestic; familiar; intimate. [From Home, n.]
- elfin a.
- Relating to elves.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To a Little Maid by a Policeman is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Bab Ballads, Project Gutenberg ebook #931; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: W. S. Gilbert, To a Little Maid by a Policeman, in The Bab Ballads (1869), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #931, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/gilbert-bab-ballads/to-a-little-maid-by-a-policeman.html, id L02364.
Form and metre
To a Little Maid by a Policeman is 27 lines in 3 stanzas of 9 lines each. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 5.2 syllables. 22% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 AA-BB-CCB maidA · afraidA · not · meB · theeB · grot · eyeC · pryC · beB
- 2 AABCCBDDC tellA · cellA · maidB · rudeC · foodC · shadeB · careD · thereD · intrudeC
- 3 AABCCBDD- maidA · shadeA · singB · rareC · thereC · thingB · spellD · cellD · pentonville
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 |
|---|---|---|
| COME with me, little maid, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Nay, shrink not, thus afraid— | 6 | ····˘/ |
| I’ll harm thee not! | 4 | ···· |
| Fly not, my love, from me— | 6 | ······ |
| I have a home for thee— | 6 | ······ |
| A fairy grot, | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Where mortal eye | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Can rarely pry, | 4 | ·/˘· |
| There shall thy dwelling be! | 6 | ···/˘· |
| List to me, while I tell | 6 | ······ |
| The pleasures of that cell, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Oh, little maid! | 4 | ·/˘· |
| What though its couch be rude, | 6 | ······ |
| Homely the only food | 6 | /˘·/˘· |
| Within its shade? | 4 | ···· |
| No thought of care | 4 | ···· |
| Can enter there, | 4 | ·/˘· |
| No vulgar swain intrude! | 6 | ·/˘·˘/ |
| Come with me, little maid, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Come to the rocky shade | 6 | ···/˘· |
| I love to sing; | 4 | ···· |
| Live with us, maiden rare— | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Come, for we “want” thee there, | 6 | ······ |
| Thou elfin thing, | 4 | ·/˘· |
| To work thy spell, | 4 | ···· |
| In some cool cell | 4 | ···· |
| In stately Pentonville! | 7 | ·/˘···· |
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.