Letty’s Globe
When Letty had scarce pass’d her third glad year,And her young, artless words began to flow,One day we gave the child a colour’d sphereOf the wide earth, that she might mark and know,By tint and outline, all its sea and land.She patted all the world; old empires peep’dBetween her baby fingers; her soft handWas welcome at all frontiers. How she leap’d,And laugh’d and prattled in her world-wide bliss!But when we turn’d her sweet unlearned eyeOn our own isle, she rais’d a joyous cry,“Oh! yes, I see it! Letty’s home is there!”And, while she hid all England with a kiss,Bright over Europe fell her golden hair!
Words in this poem
- scarce a.
- Not plentiful or abundant; in small quantity in proportion to the demand; not easily to be procured; rare; uncommon. [OE. scars, OF. escars, eschars, LL. scarpsus, for L. excerptus, p. p. of excerpere to pick out, and hence to contract, to shorten; ex (see Ex-) + carpere. See C]
- isle v. t.
- To cause to become an island, or like an island; to surround or encompass; to island.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Letty’s Globe 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, Letty’s Globe, in Poems Every Child Should Know (1904), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16436, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/poems-every-child/letty-s-globe.html, id L25227.
Form and metre
Letty’s Globe is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABABCDCDEFFGEG. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%).
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 ABABCDCDEFFGEG yearA · flowB · sphereA · knowB · landC · peep'dD · handC · leap'dD · blissE · eyeF · cryF · thereG · kissE · hairG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| When Letty had scarce pass’d her third glad year, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| And her young, artless words began to flow, | 10 | ···/˘·˘/·· |
| One day we gave the child a colour’d sphere | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Of the wide earth, that she might mark and know, | 10 | ·········· |
| By tint and outline, all its sea and land. | 10 | ···/······ |
| She patted all the world; old empires peep’d | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Between her baby fingers; her soft hand | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Was welcome at all frontiers. How she leap’d, | 10 | ·/˘··˘/··· |
| And laugh’d and prattled in her world-wide bliss! | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| But when we turn’d her sweet unlearned eye | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| On our own isle, she rais’d a joyous cry, | 10 | ·/·····/˘· |
| “Oh! yes, I see it! Letty’s home is there!” | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| And, while she hid all England with a kiss, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Bright over Europe fell her golden hair! | 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.