Cradle-Song
From groves of spice,O'er fields of rice,Athwart the lotus-stream,I bring for you,Aglint with dewA little lovely dream.
Sweet, shut your eyes,The wild fire-fliesDance through the fairy neem;From the poppy-boleFor you I stoleA little lovely dream.
Dear eyes, good-night,In golden lightThe stars around you gleam;On you I pressWith soft caressA little lovely dream.
Words in this poem
- stole n.
- A long, loose garment reaching to the feet. [AS. stole, L. stola, Gr. stall. See Stall.]
- caress n.
- An act of endearment; any act or expression of affection; an embracing, or touching, with tenderness. [F. caresse, It. carezza, LL. caritia dearness, fr. L. carus dear. See Charity.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Cradle-Song is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Golden Threshold, with an introduction by Arthur Symons (Hyderabad, 1905; London, John Lane, 1905), Project Gutenberg ebook #680; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Sarojini Naidu, Cradle-Song, in The Golden Threshold (1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #680, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/naidu-golden-threshold/cradle-song.html, id L27485.
Form and metre
Cradle-Song is 18 lines in 3 stanzas of 6 lines each. Every stanza rhymes AABCCB. The metre is iambic dimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 96%).
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 AABCCB spiceA · riceA · streamB · youC · dewC · dreamB
- 2 AABCCB eyesA · fliesA · neemB · boleC · stoleC · dreamB
- 3 AABCCB nightA · lightA · gleamB · pressC · caressC · dreamB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| From groves of spice, | 4 | ···· |
| O'er fields of rice, | 4 | ···· |
| Athwart the lotus-stream, | 6 | ˘/·/˘· |
| I bring for you, | 4 | ···· |
| Aglint with dew | 4 | ···· |
| A little lovely dream. | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| Sweet, shut your eyes, | 4 | ···· |
| The wild fire-flies | 4 | ··/· |
| Dance through the fairy neem; | 6 | ···/˘· |
| From the poppy-bole | 5 | ··/˘· |
| For you I stole | 4 | ···· |
| A little lovely dream. | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| Dear eyes, good-night, | 4 | ···· |
| In golden light | 4 | ·/˘· |
| The stars around you gleam; | 6 | ······ |
| On you I press | 4 | ···· |
| With soft caress | 4 | ··˘/ |
| A little lovely dream. | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
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.