To Alison Cunningham
I Bed in SummerII A ThoughtIII At the Sea-SideIV Young Night-ThoughtV Whole Duty of ChildrenVI RainVII Pirate StoryVIII Foreign LandsIX Windy NightsX TravelXI SingingXII Looking ForwardXIII A Good PlayXIV Where Go the Boats?XV Auntie's SkirtsXVI The Land of CounterpaneXVII The Land of NodXVIII My ShadowXIX SystemXX A Good BoyXXI Escape at BedtimeXXII Marching SongXXIII The CowXXIV The Happy ThoughtXXV The WindXXVI Keepsake MillXXVII Good and Bad ChildrenXXVIII Foreign ChildrenXXIX The Sun TravelsXXX The LamplighterXXXI My Bed is a BoatXXXII The MoonXXXIII The SwingXXXIV Time to RiseXXXV Looking-Glass RiverXXXVI Fairy BreadXXXVII From a Railway CarriageXXXVIII Winter-TimeXXXIX The HayloftXL Farewell to the FarmXLI North-West Passage1. Good-Night2. Shadow March3. In Port
Words in this poem
- counterpane n.
- A coverlet for a bed, -- originally stitched or woven in squares or figures. [See Counterpoint, corrupted into counterpane, from the employment of pane-shaped figures in these coverlets.]
- bedtime n.
- The time to go to bed.
- keepsake n.
- Anything kept, or given to be kept, for the sake of the giver; a token of friendship.
- lamplighter n.
- One who, or that which, lights a lamp; esp., a person who lights street lamps.
- hayloft n.
- A loft or scaffold for hay.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To Alison Cunningham is in the public domain. This text is taken from A Child's Garden of Verses, Project Gutenberg ebook #136; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Robert Louis Stevenson, To Alison Cunningham, in A Child's Garden of Verses (1885), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #136, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/stevenson-childs-garden/to-alison-cunningham.html, id L07169.
Form and metre
To Alison Cunningham is 44 lines in a single verse paragraph. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. The metre is trochaic dimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 79%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 4.3 syllables. 15 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 98% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in trochaic dimeter.
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 ----AA------------B-B------C---C------------ summer · thought · side · thought · childrenA · rainA · story · lands · nights · travel · singing · forward · play · boats · skirts · counterpane · nod · shadow · systemB · boy · bedtimeB · song · cow · thought · wind · mill · children · childrenC · travels · lamplighter · boat · moonC · swing · rise · river · bread · carriage · time · hayloft · farm · passage · night · march · port
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 trochaic dimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| I Bed in Summer | 5 | ···/˘ |
| II A Thought | 3 | ··· |
| III At the Sea-Side | 5 | ····· |
| IV Young Night-Thought | 4 | ···· |
| V Whole Duty of Children | 7 | ··/˘·/˘ |
| VI Rain | 2 | ·· |
| VII Pirate Story | 5 | ·/˘/˘ |
| VIII Foreign Lands | 4 | ·/˘· |
| IX Windy Nights | 4 | ·/˘· |
| X Travel | 3 | ·/˘ |
| XI Singing | 3 | ·/˘ |
| XII Looking Forward | 5 | ·/˘/˘ |
| XIII A Good Play | 4 | ···· |
| XIV Where Go the Boats? | 5 | ····· |
| XV Auntie's Skirts | 4 | ·/˘· |
| XVI The Land of Counterpane | 7 | ····/˘˘ |
| XVII The Land of Nod | 5 | ····· |
| XVIII My Shadow | 4 | ··/· |
| XIX System | 3 | ·/˘ |
| XX A Good Boy | 4 | ···· |
| XXI Escape at Bedtime | 6 | ·˘/·/· |
| XXII Marching Song | 4 | ·/˘· |
| XXIII The Cow | 3 | ··· |
| XXIV The Happy Thought | 5 | ··/˘· |
| XXV The Wind | 3 | ··· |
| XXVI Keepsake Mill | 4 | ·/·· |
| XXVII Good and Bad Children | 6 | ····/˘ |
| XXVIII Foreign Children | 5 | ·/˘/˘ |
| XXIX The Sun Travels | 5 | ···/˘ |
| XXX The Lamplighter | 5 | ··/·˘ |
| XXXI My Bed is a Boat | 6 | ······ |
| XXXII The Moon | 3 | ··· |
| XXXIII The Swing | 3 | ··· |
| XXXIV Time to Rise | 4 | ···· |
| XXXV Looking-Glass River | 6 | ·/˘·/˘ |
| XXXVI Fairy Bread | 4 | ·/˘· |
| XXXVII From a Railway Carriage | 7 | ···/·/˘ |
| XXXVIII Winter-Time | 4 | ·/˘· |
| XXXIX The Hayloft | 4 | ··/· |
| XL Farewell to the Farm | 6 | ··/··· |
| XLI North-West Passage | 5 | ···/˘ |
| 1. Good-Night | 2 | ·· |
| 2. Shadow March | 3 | /·· |
| 3. In Port | 2 | ·· |
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.