Baby
Where did you come from, baby dear?Out of the everywhere into here.
Where did you get those eyes so blue?Out of the sky as I came through.
What makes the light in them sparkle and spin?Some of the starry twinkles left in.
Where did you get that little tear?I found it waiting when I got here.
What makes your forehead so smooth and high?A soft hand stroked it as I went by.
What makes your cheek like a warm white rose?I saw something better than any one knows.
Whence that three-cornered smile of bliss?Three angels gave me at once a kiss.
Where did you get this pearly ear?God spoke, and it came out to hear.
Where did you get those arms and hands?Love made itself into bonds and bands.
Feet, whence did you come, you darling things?From the same box as the cherubs' wings.
How did they all just come to be you?God thought about me, and so I grew.
But how did you come to us, you dear?God thought about you, and so I am here.
Words in this poem
- starry a.
- Abounding with stars; adorned with stars.
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- spoke n.
- The radius or ray of a wheel; one of the small bars which are inserted in the hub, or nave, and which serve to support the rim or felly. [OE. spoke, spake, AS, spaca; akin to D. speek, LG. speke, OHG. speihha, G. speiche. sq. root170. Cf. Spike a nail.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Baby is in the public domain. This text is taken from The poetical works of George MacDonald in two volumes — Volume 2, Project Gutenberg ebook #9984; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: George MacDonald, Baby, in A Microcosm in Terza Rima, and Other Poems (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9984, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/macdonald-poems/baby.html, id L22342.
Form and metre
Baby is 24 lines in 12 stanzas of 2 lines each. It is in rhyming couplets: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 79%).
See other poems in octosyllabic couplets, 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 AA dearA · hereA
- 2 AA blueA · throughA
- 3 AA spinA · inA
- 4 AA tearA · hereA
- 5 AA highA · byA
- 6 AA roseA · knowsA
- 7 AA blissA · kissA
- 8 AA earA · hearA
- 9 AA handsA · bandsA
- 10 AA thingsA · wingsA
- 11 AA youA · grewA
- 12 AA dearA · hereA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Where did you come from, baby dear? | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Out of the everywhere into here. | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| Where did you get those eyes so blue? | 8 | ········ |
| Out of the sky as I came through. | 8 | ········ |
| What makes the light in them sparkle and spin? | 10 | ······/˘·· |
| Some of the starry twinkles left in. | 9 | ···/˘/˘·· |
| Where did you get that little tear? | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| I found it waiting when I got here. | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| What makes your forehead so smooth and high? | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| A soft hand stroked it as I went by. | 10 | ····˘····· |
| What makes your cheek like a warm white rose? | 9 | ········· |
| I saw something better than any one knows. | 11 | ··/˘/˘·/˘·· |
| Whence that three-cornered smile of bliss? | 9 | ···/˘˘··· |
| Three angels gave me at once a kiss. | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| Where did you get this pearly ear? | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| God spoke, and it came out to hear. | 8 | ········ |
| Where did you get those arms and hands? | 8 | ········ |
| Love made itself into bonds and bands. | 9 | ··˘/····· |
| Feet, whence did you come, you darling things? | 9 | ······/˘· |
| From the same box as the cherubs' wings. | 9 | ······/˘· |
| How did they all just come to be you? | 9 | ········· |
| God thought about me, and so I grew. | 9 | ········· |
| But how did you come to us, you dear? | 9 | ········· |
| God thought about you, and so I am here. | 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.