I.—By the Cradle
Close her eyes: she must not peep!Let her little puds go slack;Slide away far into sleep:Sis will watch till she comes back!
Mother's knitting at the door,Waiting till the kettle sings;When the kettle's song is o'erShe will set the bright tea-things.
Father's busy making hayIn the meadow by the brook,Not so very far away--Close its peeps, it needn't look!
God is round us everywhere--Sees the scythe glitter and rip;Watches baby gone somewhere;Sees how mother's fingers skip!
Sleep, dear baby; sleep outright:Mother's sitting just behind:Father's only out of sight;God is round us like the wind.
Words in this poem
- kettle n.
- A metallic vessel, with a wide mouth, often without a cover, used for heating and boiling water or other liguids. Kettle pins, ninepins; skittles. Shelton. [OE. ketel; cf. AS. cetel, cetil, cytel; akin to D. kjedel, G. kessel, OHG. chezzil, Icel. ketill, SW. kittel, Dan. kjedel, Goth. katils; all perh. fr. L. catill]
- somewhere adv.
- In some place unknown or not specified; in one place or another.
- outright adv.
- Immediately; without delay; at once; as, he was killed outright.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
I.—By the Cradle 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, I.—By the Cradle, in A Microcosm in Terza Rima, and Other Poems (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9984, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/macdonald-poems/i-by-the-cradle.html, id L22513.
Form and metre
I.—By the Cradle is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 4 of its 5 stanzas. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%).
See other poems in trochaic 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 peepA · slackB · sleepA · backB
- 2 -A-A door · singsA · o'er · thingsA
- 3 ABAB hayA · brookB · awayA · lookB
- 4 ABAB everywhereA · ripB · somewhereA · skipB
- 5 ABAB outrightA · behindB · sightA · windB
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 trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Close her eyes: she must not peep! | 7 | ······· |
| Let her little puds go slack; | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Slide away far into sleep: | 7 | ·˘/···· |
| Sis will watch till she comes back! | 7 | ······· |
| Mother's knitting at the door, | 7 | /˘/˘··· |
| Waiting till the kettle sings; | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| When the kettle's song is o'er | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| She will set the bright tea-things. | 7 | ······· |
| Father's busy making hay | 7 | /˘/˘/˘· |
| In the meadow by the brook, | 7 | ··/···· |
| Not so very far away-- | 7 | ··/˘·˘/ |
| Close its peeps, it needn't look! | 7 | ····/˘· |
| God is round us everywhere-- | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Sees the scythe glitter and rip; | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| Watches baby gone somewhere; | 7 | /˘/˘·/· |
| Sees how mother's fingers skip! | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| Sleep, dear baby; sleep outright: | 7 | ··/˘·// |
| Mother's sitting just behind: | 7 | /˘/˘··· |
| Father's only out of sight; | 7 | /˘/˘··· |
| God is round us like the wind. | 7 | ······· |
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.