A Little Memory
White in the moonlight,Wet with dew,We have known the languorOf being two.
We have been wearyAs children are,When over them, radiant,A stooping star,
Bends their Good-Night,Kissed and smiled:--Each was mother,Each was child.
Child, from your foreheadI kissed the hair,Gently, ah, gently:And you were
Mistress and motherWhen on your breastI lay so safelyAnd could rest.
About this text
A Little Memory is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Defeat of Youth, and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #24364; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Aldous Huxley, A Little Memory, in The Defeat of Youth, and Other Poems (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #24364, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/huxley-defeat-of-youth/a-little-memory.html, id L22019.
Form and metre
A Little Memory is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is iambic dimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%).
See other poems in iambic dimeter.
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 moonlight · dewA · languor · twoA
- 2 -A-A weary · areA · radiant · starA
- 3 -A-A night · smiledA · mother · childA
- 5 -A-A mother · breastA · safely · restA
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 dimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| White in the moonlight, | 5 | ···/· |
| Wet with dew, | 3 | ··· |
| We have known the languor | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Of being two. | 4 | ·/˘· |
| We have been weary | 5 | ···/˘ |
| As children are, | 4 | ·/˘· |
| When over them, radiant, | 7 | ····/˘˘ |
| A stooping star, | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Bends their Good-Night, | 4 | ···· |
| Kissed and smiled:-- | 3 | ··· |
| Each was mother, | 4 | ··/˘ |
| Each was child. | 3 | ··· |
| Child, from your forehead | 5 | ···/˘ |
| I kissed the hair, | 4 | ···· |
| Gently, ah, gently: | 5 | /˘·/˘ |
| And you were | 3 | ··· |
| Mistress and mother | 5 | /˘·/˘ |
| When on your breast | 4 | ···· |
| I lay so safely | 5 | ···/˘ |
| And could rest. | 3 | ··· |
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.