The Burning Babe
As I in hoary winter’s nightStood shivering in the snow,Surprised I was with sudden heatWhich made my heart to glow;And lifting up a fearful eyeTo view what fire was near,A pretty babe all burning brightDid in the air appear;Who, scorchèd with excessive heat,Such floods of tears did shed,As though His floods should quench His flames,Which with His tears were bred:‘Alas!’ quoth He, ‘but newly bornIn fiery heats I fry,Yet none approach to warm their heartsOr feel my fire but I!
‘My faultless breast the furnace is;The fuel, wounding thorns;Love is the fire, and sighs the smoke;The ashes, shames and scorns;The fuel Justice layeth on,And Mercy blows the coals,The metal in this furnace wroughtAre men’s defilèd souls:For which, as now on fire I amTo work them to their good,So will I melt into a bath,To wash them in my blood.’With this He vanish’d out of sightAnd swiftly shrunk away,And straight I callèd unto mindThat it was Christmas Day.
Words in this poem
- hoary a.
- White or whitish."The hoary willows."
- babe n.
- An infant; a young child of either sex; a baby. [Cf. Ir. bab, baban, W. baban, maban.]
- quoth v. t.
- Said; spoke; uttered; -- used only in the first and third persons in the past tenses, and always followed by its nominative, the word or words said being the object; as, quoth I. quoth he. [AS.cweedhan, imp cwæedh, pl. cwædon; akin to OS. queedhan, OHG. quethan, quedan, Icel. kveedha, Goth. qiþan. sq. root22. Cf. Bequeath.]
- faultless a.
- Without fault; not defective or imperfect; free from blemish; free from incorrectness, vice, or offense; perfect; as, a faultless poem.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Burning Babe is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Oxford Book of English Verse, 1250-1900, Project Gutenberg ebook #66619; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Robert Southwell, The Burning Babe, in Poems (1561–1595), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66619, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/obev-robert-southwell/the-burning-babe.html, id L15983.
Form and metre
The Burning Babe is 32 lines in 2 stanzas of 16 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.1 syllables. 31% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See 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 ABCBDEAECF-F-D-D nightA · snowB · heatC · glowB · eyeD · nearE · brightA · appearE · heatC · shedF · flames · bredF · born · fryD · hearts · iD
- 2 -A-A-B-B-C-C-D-D is · thornsA · smoke · scornsA · on · coalsB · wrought · soulsB · am · goodC · bath · bloodC · sight · awayD · mind · dayD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| As I in hoary winter’s night | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Stood shivering in the snow, | 7 | ·/˘˘··· |
| Surprised I was with sudden heat | 8 | ˘/···/˘· |
| Which made my heart to glow; | 6 | ······ |
| And lifting up a fearful eye | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| To view what fire was near, | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| A pretty babe all burning bright | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Did in the air appear; | 6 | ····˘/ |
| Who, scorchèd with excessive heat, | 7 | ···˘/˘· |
| Such floods of tears did shed, | 6 | ······ |
| As though His floods should quench His flames, | 8 | ········ |
| Which with His tears were bred: | 6 | ······ |
| ‘Alas!’ quoth He, ‘but newly born | 8 | ˘/···/˘· |
| In fiery heats I fry, | 7 | ·/˘˘··· |
| Yet none approach to warm their hearts | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| Or feel my fire but I! | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| ‘My faultless breast the furnace is; | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| The fuel, wounding thorns; | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| Love is the fire, and sighs the smoke; | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| The ashes, shames and scorns; | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| The fuel Justice layeth on, | 7 | ·/˘/˘·· |
| And Mercy blows the coals, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| The metal in this furnace wrought | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Are men’s defilèd souls: | 5 | ····· |
| For which, as now on fire I am | 9 | ·····/˘·· |
| To work them to their good, | 6 | ······ |
| So will I melt into a bath, | 8 | ········ |
| To wash them in my blood.’ | 6 | ······ |
| With this He vanish’d out of sight | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And swiftly shrunk away, | 6 | ·/˘·˘/ |
| And straight I callèd unto mind | 7 | ······· |
| That it was Christmas Day. | 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.