The Maid-Servant at the Inn
“It’s queer,” she said, “I see the lightAs plain as I beheld it then,All silver-like and calm and bright—We’ve not had stars like that again!
“And she was such a gentle thingTo birth a baby in the cold.The barn was dark and frightening—This new one’s better than the old.
“I mind my eyes were full of tears,For I was young, and quick distressed,But she was less than me in yearsThat held a son against her breast.
“I never saw a sweeter child—The little one, the darling one!—I mind I told her, when he smiledYou’d know he was his mother’s son.
“It’s queer that I should see them so—The time they came to BethlehemWas more than thirty years ago;I’ve prayed that all is well with them.”
Words in this poem
- bethlehem n.
- A hospital for lunatics; -- corrupted into bedlam. [Heb. b house of food; b house + lekhem food, lakham to eat. Formerly the name of a hospital for the insane, in London, which had been the priory of St. Mary of ]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Maid-Servant at the Inn is in the public domain. This text is taken from Sunset Gun: Poems (Boni & Liveright, 1928), English Wikisource; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Dorothy Parker, The Maid-Servant at the Inn, in Sunset Gun (1928), text of English Wikisource, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/parker-sunset-gun/the-maid-servant-at-the-inn.html, id L27440.
Form and metre
The Maid-Servant at the Inn is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%).
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 ABAB lightA · thenB · brightA · againB
- 2 ABAB thingA · coldB · frighteningA · oldB
- 3 ABAB tearsA · distressedB · yearsA · breastB
- 4 ABAB childA · oneB · smiledA · sonB
- 5 ABAB soA · bethlehemB · agoA · themB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| “It’s queer,” she said, “I see the light | 8 | ········ |
| As plain as I beheld it then, | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| All silver-like and calm and bright— | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| We’ve not had stars like that again! | 8 | ······˘/ |
| “And she was such a gentle thing | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| To birth a baby in the cold. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The barn was dark and frightening— | 8 | ·····/˘˘ |
| This new one’s better than the old. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| “I mind my eyes were full of tears, | 8 | ········ |
| For I was young, and quick distressed, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| But she was less than me in years | 8 | ········ |
| That held a son against her breast. | 8 | ········ |
| “I never saw a sweeter child— | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| The little one, the darling one!— | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| I mind I told her, when he smiled | 8 | ········ |
| You’d know he was his mother’s son. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| “It’s queer that I should see them so— | 8 | ········ |
| The time they came to Bethlehem | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Was more than thirty years ago; | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| I’ve prayed that all is well with them.” | 8 | ········ |
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.