The Carelesse Nurse Mayd
I sawe a Mayd sitte on a Bank,Beguiled by Wooer fayne and fond;And whiles His flatterynge Vowes She drank,Her Nurselynge slipt within a Pond!
All Even Tide they Talkde and Kist,For She was Fayre and He was Kinde;The Sunne went down before She wistAnother Sonne had sett behinde!
With angrie Hands and frownynge Browe,That deemd Her owne the Urchine's Sinne,She pluckt Him out, but he was nowePast being Whipt for fallynge in.
She then beginnes to wayle the LaddeWith Shrikes that Echo answered round--O foolish Mayd! to be soe saddeThe Momente that her Care was drownd!
Words in this poem
- sitte
- obs. 3d pers. sing. pres. of Sit, for sitteth.
- wooer n.
- One who wooes; one who courts or solicits in love; a suitor. [AS. wogere. See Woo, v. t.]
- whiles conj.
- During the time that; while. Chaucer. Fuller.
- drank n.
- Wild oats, or darnel grass. See Drake a plant. [Cf. 3d Drake.]
- kist n.
- A chest; hence, a coffin. Jamieson. [See Chest.]
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- sonne n.
- A male child; the male issue, or offspring, of a parent, father or mother. [OE. sone, sune, AS. sunu; akin to D. zoon, OS., OFries., & OHG. sunu, G. sohn, Icel. sonr, Sw. son, Dan. sön, Goth. sunus, Lith. sunus, Russ. suin', Skr. sunu (]
- sinne adv.
- Old form of Since. [Obs. or Prov.Eng. & Scot.]
- sadde a.
- Sated; satisfied; weary; tired. [OE. sad sated, tired, satisfied, firm, steadfast, AS. sæd satisfied, sated; akin to D. zat, OS. sad, G. tt, OHG. sat, sa, saddr, Goth. saps, Lith. sotus, L. sat]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Carelesse Nurse Mayd is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poetical Works of Thomas Hood, Project Gutenberg ebook #15652; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Thomas Hood, The Carelesse Nurse Mayd, in The Song of the Shirt, and Other Poems (1826–1845), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #15652, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hood-poetical-works/the-carelesse-nurse-mayd.html, id L20202.
Form and metre
The Carelesse Nurse Mayd is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 3 of its 4 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%).
See 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 ABAB bankA · fondB · drankA · pondB
- 2 ABAB kistA · kindeB · wistA · behindeB
- 3 ABAB broweA · sinneB · noweA · inB
- 4 A-A- laddeA · round · saddeA · drownd
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I sawe a Mayd sitte on a Bank, | 8 | ········ |
| Beguiled by Wooer fayne and fond; | 8 | ˘/·/˘··· |
| And whiles His flatterynge Vowes She drank, | 9 | ········· |
| Her Nurselynge slipt within a Pond! | 9 | ········· |
| All Even Tide they Talkde and Kist, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| For She was Fayre and He was Kinde; | 8 | ········ |
| The Sunne went down before She wist | 8 | ········ |
| Another Sonne had sett behinde! | 8 | ˘/˘····· |
| With angrie Hands and frownynge Browe, | 8 | ········ |
| That deemd Her owne the Urchine's Sinne, | 8 | ········ |
| She pluckt Him out, but he was nowe | 8 | ········ |
| Past being Whipt for fallynge in. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| She then beginnes to wayle the Ladde | 9 | ··˘/····· |
| With Shrikes that Echo answered round-- | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| O foolish Mayd! to be soe sadde | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| The Momente that her Care was drownd! | 8 | ········ |
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.