Children: Private Ward
HERE in this dim, dull, double-bedded room,I play the father to a brace of boys,Ailing but apt for every sort of noise,Bedfast but brilliant yet with health and bloom.Roden, the Irishman, is ‘sieven past,’Blue-eyed, snub-nosed, chubby, and fair of face.Willie’s but six, and seems to like the place,A cheerful little collier to the last.They eat, and laugh, and sing, and fight, all day;All night they sleep like dormice. See them playAt Operations:—Roden, the Professor,Saws, lectures, takes the artery up, and ties;Willie, self-chloroformed, with half-shut eyes,Holding the limb and moaning—Case and Dresser.
Words in this poem
- irishman n.
- A man born in Ireland or of the Irish race; an Hibernian.
- chubby a.
- Like a chub; plump, short, and thick.
- dresser n.
- One who dresses; one who put in order or makes ready for use; one who on clothes or ornaments.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Children: Private Ward is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #1568; 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. E. Henley, Children: Private Ward, in Poems (1898), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1568, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/henley-poems/children-private-ward.html, id L12339.
Form and metre
Children: Private Ward is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABBACDDCEEFGGF. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 87% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 7% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See 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 ABBACDDCEEFGGF roomA · boysB · noiseB · bloomA · pastC · faceD · placeD · lastC · dayE · playE · professorF · tiesG · eyesG · dresserF
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 |
|---|---|---|
| HERE in this dim, dull, double-bedded room, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| I play the father to a brace of boys, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Ailing but apt for every sort of noise, | 10 | /˘···/˘··· |
| Bedfast but brilliant yet with health and bloom. | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Roden, the Irishman, is ‘sieven past,’ | 10 | /˘·/˘˘···· |
| Blue-eyed, snub-nosed, chubby, and fair of face. | 10 | ····/˘···· |
| Willie’s but six, and seems to like the place, | 10 | /˘········ |
| A cheerful little collier to the last. | 10 | ·/˘/˘/˘··· |
| They eat, and laugh, and sing, and fight, all day; | 10 | ·········· |
| All night they sleep like dormice. See them play | 10 | ·········· |
| At Operations:—Roden, the Professor, | 11 | ··˘/˘/˘·˘/˘ |
| Saws, lectures, takes the artery up, and ties; | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Willie, self-chloroformed, with half-shut eyes, | 10 | /˘·/˘····· |
| Holding the limb and moaning—Case and Dresser. | 11 | /˘···/˘··/˘ |
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.