A New Arrival
There came to port last Sunday nightThe queerest little craft,Without an inch of rigging on;I looked and looked and laughed.It seemed so curious that sheShould cross the Unknown water,And moor herself right in my room,My daughter, O my daughter!
Yet by these presents witness allShe’s welcome fifty times,And comes consigned to Hope and LoveAnd common-meter rhymes.She has no manifest but this,No flag floats o’er the water,She’s too new for the British Lloyds--My daughter, O my daughter!
Ring out, wild bells, and tame ones too!Ring out the lover’s moon!Ring in the little worsted socks!Ring in the bib and spoon!Ring out the muse! ring in the nurse!Ring in the milk and water!Away with paper, pen, and ink--My daughter, O my daughter!
Words in this poem
- craft n.
- Strength; might; secret power. [AS. cr strength, skill, art, cunning; akin to OS., G., Sw., & Dan. kraft strength, D. kracht, Icel. kraptr; perh. originally, a drawing together, stretching, fr]
- curious a.
- Difficult to please or satisfy; solicitous to be correct; careful; scrupulous; nice; exact. [OF. curios, curius, F. curieux, L. curiosus careful, inquisitive, fr. cura care. See Cure.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A New Arrival is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems Every Child Should Know The What-Every-Child-Should-Know-Library, Project Gutenberg ebook #16436; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Mary E. Burt, A New Arrival, in Poems Every Child Should Know (1904), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16436, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/poems-every-child/a-new-arrival.html, id L25249.
Form and metre
A New Arrival is 24 lines in 3 stanzas of 8 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%).
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 -A-A-B-B night · craftA · on · laughedA · she · waterB · room · daughterB
- 2 -A-A-B-B all · timesA · love · rhymesA · this · waterB · lloyds · daughterB
- 3 -A-A-B-B too · moonA · socks · spoonA · nurse · waterB · ink · daughterB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| There came to port last Sunday night | 8 | ·····/·· |
| The queerest little craft, | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| Without an inch of rigging on; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| I looked and looked and laughed. | 6 | ······ |
| It seemed so curious that she | 8 | ···/˘˘·· |
| Should cross the Unknown water, | 7 | ···˘//˘ |
| And moor herself right in my room, | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| My daughter, O my daughter! | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| Yet by these presents witness all | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| She’s welcome fifty times, | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| And comes consigned to Hope and Love | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| And common-meter rhymes. | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| She has no manifest but this, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| No flag floats o’er the water, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| She’s too new for the British Lloyds-- | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| My daughter, O my daughter! | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| Ring out, wild bells, and tame ones too! | 8 | ········ |
| Ring out the lover’s moon! | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Ring in the little worsted socks! | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Ring in the bib and spoon! | 6 | ······ |
| Ring out the muse! ring in the nurse! | 8 | ········ |
| Ring in the milk and water! | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Away with paper, pen, and ink-- | 8 | ˘/·/˘··· |
| My daughter, O my daughter! | 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.