The Elf Child
I am a child of the reef and the blowing spray,And all my heart goes wildly to the sea.I am a changeling: can you follow meThrough hill and hollow on the wind’s dim way?Yes, at the break of a tempestuous dayThey bore me to the land through starless storm,And laid me in the pillow sweetly warmAnd broken by the first one’s little stay.
The elf kings found me on an ocean reef,A lyric child of mystery and grief.Then need I tell you why the trembling start--Why in my song the sound of ocean dwells--Why the quick gladness when the billow swells,As though remembered voices called the heart?
Words in this poem
- changeling n.
- One who, or that which, is left or taken in the place of another, as a child exchanged by fairies. [Change + -ling.]
- starless a.
- Being without stars; having no stars visible; as, a starless night.
- billow n.
- A great wave or surge of the sea or other water, caused usually by violent wind. [Cf. Icel. bylgja billow, Dan. bölge, Sw. bölja; akin to MHG. bulge billow, bag, and to E. bulge. See Bulge.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Elf Child is in the public domain. This text is taken from The man with the hoe, and other poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #67012; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Edwin Markham, The Elf Child, in The Man with the Hoe, and Other Poems (1899), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #67012, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/markham-man-with-hoe/the-elf-child.html, id L24746.
Form and metre
The Elf Child is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%).
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 ABBAACCA sprayA · seaB · meB · wayA · dayA · stormC · warmC · stayA
- 2 AABCCB reefA · griefA · startB · dwellsC · swellsC · heartB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I am a child of the reef and the blowing spray, | 12 | ·········/˘· |
| And all my heart goes wildly to the sea. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| I am a changeling: can you follow me | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Through hill and hollow on the wind’s dim way? | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Yes, at the break of a tempestuous day | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| They bore me to the land through starless storm, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| And laid me in the pillow sweetly warm | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| And broken by the first one’s little stay. | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| The elf kings found me on an ocean reef, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| A lyric child of mystery and grief. | 10 | ·/˘··/˘˘·· |
| Then need I tell you why the trembling start-- | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Why in my song the sound of ocean dwells-- | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Why the quick gladness when the billow swells, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| As though remembered voices called the heart? | 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.