My Shadow
I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me,And what can be the use of him is more than I can see.He is very, very like me from the heels up to the head;And I see him jump before me, when I jump into my bed.
The funniest thing about him is the way he likes to grow--Not at all like proper children, which is always very slow;For he sometimes shoots up taller like an india-rubber ball,And he sometimes gets so little that there’s none of him at all.
He hasn’t got a notion of how children ought to play,And can only make a fool of me in every sort of way.He stays so close beside me, he’s a coward, you can see;I’d think shame to stick to nursie as that shadow sticks to me!
One morning, very early, before the sun was up,I rose and found the shining dew on every buttercup;But my lazy little shadow, like an arrant sleepy-head,Had stayed at home behind me and was fast asleep in bed.
Words in this poem
- ought p. p.
- Was or were under obligation to pay; owed. [Orig. the preterit of the verb to owe. OE. oughte, aughte, ahte, AS. ahte. sq. root110. See Owe.]
- arrant a.
- Notoriously or preëminently bad; thorough or downright, in a bad sense; shameless; unmitigated; as, an arrant rogue or coward. [OE. erraunt, errant, errand, equiv. to E. errant wandering, which was first applied to vagabonds, as an errant rogue, an errant thief, and hence passed graduall]
- stayed a.
- Staid; fixed; settled; sober; -- now written staid. See Staid.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
My Shadow 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, My Shadow, in Poems Every Child Should Know (1904), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16436, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/poems-every-child/my-shadow.html, id L25162.
Form and metre
My Shadow is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes AABB. The metre is iambic heptameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 83%).
See other poems in iambic heptameter.
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 AABB meA · seeA · headB · bedB
- 2 AABB growA · slowA · ballB · allB
- 3 AABB playA · wayA · seeB · meB
- 4 AABB upA · buttercupA · headB · bedB
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 heptameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me, | 14 | ···/˘/········ |
| And what can be the use of him is more than I can see. | 14 | ·············· |
| He is very, very like me from the heels up to the head; | 15 | ··/˘/˘········· |
| And I see him jump before me, when I jump into my bed. | 15 | ··············· |
| The funniest thing about him is the way he likes to grow-- | 15 | ·/˘˘··········· |
| Not at all like proper children, which is always very slow; | 15 | ····/˘/˘··/·/˘· |
| For he sometimes shoots up taller like an india-rubber ball, | 15 | ··/···/˘··/˘/˘· |
| And he sometimes gets so little that there’s none of him at all. | 15 | ··/···/˘······· |
| He hasn’t got a notion of how children ought to play, | 14 | ·/˘··/˘··/˘··· |
| And can only make a fool of me in every sort of way. | 15 | ··/˘······/˘··· |
| He stays so close beside me, he’s a coward, you can see; | 14 | ····˘/···/˘··· |
| I’d think shame to stick to nursie as that shadow sticks to me! | 15 | ··········/···· |
| One morning, very early, before the sun was up, | 13 | ·/˘/˘/˘······ |
| I rose and found the shining dew on every buttercup; | 15 | ·····/˘··/˘˘/˘· |
| But my lazy little shadow, like an arrant sleepy-head, | 15 | ··/˘/˘/···/˘/˘· |
| Had stayed at home behind me and was fast asleep in bed. | 15 | ··˘········˘/·· |
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.