The Cottage Girl
A child beside a hamlet’s fount at play,Her fair face laughing at the sunny day;
A gush of waters tremulously bright,Kindling the air to gladness with their light;And a soft gloom beyond of summer trees,Darkening the turf; and, shadow’d o’er by these,A low, dim, woodland cottage--this was all!What had the scene for memory to recallWith a fond look of love? What secret spellWith the heart’s pictures made its image dwell?
What but the spirit of the joyous child,That freshly forth o’er stream and verdure smiled,Casting upon the common things of earthA brightness, born and gone with infant mirth!
Words in this poem
- sunny a.
- Of or pertaining to the sun; proceeding from, or resembling the sun; hence, shining; bright; brilliant; radiant.
- dwell v. i.
- To delay; to linger. [OE. dwellen, dwelien, to err, linger, AS. dwellan to deceive, hinder, delay, dwelian to err; akin to Icel. dvelja to delay, tarry, Sw. dväljas to dwell, Dan. dv]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Cottage Girl is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poems of Felicia Hemans, Project Gutenberg ebook #66785; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Felicia Hemans, The Cottage Girl, in Poems (1808–1835), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66785, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hemans-poems/the-cottage-girl.html, id L19773.
Form and metre
The Cottage Girl is 14 lines in 3 verse paragraphs. It is in rhyming couplets: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%).
See other poems in heroic couplets, other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 playA · dayA
- 2 AABBCCDD brightA · lightA · treesB · theseB · allC · recallC · spellD · dwellD
- 3 AABB childA · smiledA · earthB · mirthB
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| A child beside a hamlet’s fount at play, | 10 | ··˘/·/˘··· |
| Her fair face laughing at the sunny day; | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| A gush of waters tremulously bright, | 10 | ···/˘/˘˘˘· |
| Kindling the air to gladness with their light; | 10 | /˘···/˘··· |
| And a soft gloom beyond of summer trees, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Darkening the turf; and, shadow’d o’er by these, | 10 | /˘···/˘··· |
| A low, dim, woodland cottage--this was all! | 10 | ···/·/˘··· |
| What had the scene for memory to recall | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| With a fond look of love? What secret spell | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| With the heart’s pictures made its image dwell? | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| What but the spirit of the joyous child, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| That freshly forth o’er stream and verdure smiled, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Casting upon the common things of earth | 10 | /˘···/˘··· |
| A brightness, born and gone with infant mirth! | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
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.