The Babie
“Her face is like an angel’s face,I’m glad she has no wings.”
Nae shoon to hide her tiny taes,Nae stockin’ on her feet;Her supple ankles white as snaw,Or early blossoms sweet.
Her simple dress o’ sprinkled pink,Her double, dimplit chin,Her puckered lips, and baumy mou’,With na ane tooth within.
Her een sae like her mither’s een,Twa gentle, liquid things;Her face is like an angel’s face:We’re glad she has nae wings.
About this text
The Babie 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, The Babie, in Poems Every Child Should Know (1904), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16436, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/poems-every-child/the-babie.html, id L25153.
Form and metre
The Babie is 14 lines in 4 stanzas. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%).
See other poems in common measure.
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.
- 2 -A-A taes · feetA · snaw · sweetA
- 3 -A-A pink · chinA · mou · withinA
- 4 -A-A een · thingsA · face · wingsA
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 common measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| “Her face is like an angel’s face, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| I’m glad she has no wings.” | 6 | ······ |
| Nae shoon to hide her tiny taes, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Nae stockin’ on her feet; | 6 | ······ |
| Her supple ankles white as snaw, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Or early blossoms sweet. | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| Her simple dress o’ sprinkled pink, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Her double, dimplit chin, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Her puckered lips, and baumy mou’, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| With na ane tooth within. | 6 | ······ |
| Her een sae like her mither’s een, | 8 | ········ |
| Twa gentle, liquid things; | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| Her face is like an angel’s face: | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| We’re glad she has nae wings. | 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.