Children
My niece, who is six years old, is called “Miss Tortoise”;My daughter of three,--little “Summer Dress.”One is beginning to learn to joke and talk;The other can already recite poems and songs.At morning they play clinging about my feet;At night they sleep pillowed against my dress.Why, children, did you reach the world so late,Coming to me just when my years are spent?Young things draw our feelings to them;Old people easily give their hearts.The sweetest vintage at last turns sour;The full moon in the end begins to wane.And so with men the bonds of love and affectionSoon may change to a load of sorrow and care.But all the world is bound by love’s ties;Why did I think that I alone should escape?
Words in this poem
- niece n.
- A relative, in general; especially, a descendant, whether male or female; a granddaughter or a grandson. B. Jonson. Wyclif. [OE. nece, F. nièce, LL. neptia, for L. neptis a granddaughter, niece, akin to nepos. See Nephew.]
- pillowed a.
- Provided with a pillow or pillows; having the head resting on, or as on, a pillow.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Children is in the public domain. This text is taken from A Hundred and Seventy Chinese Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #42290, the Arthur Waley translation; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Various, Children, in A Hundred and Seventy Chinese Poems (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #42290, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/waley-chinese/children.html, id L18853.
Form and metre
Children is 16 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 76%). 92% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.5 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 6% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 AA---A-----BB--- tortoiseA · dressA · talk · songs · feet · dressA · late · spent · them · hearts · sour · waneB · affectionB · care · ties · escape
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 |
|---|---|---|
| My niece, who is six years old, is called “Miss Tortoise”; | 12 | ··········/˘ |
| My daughter of three,--little “Summer Dress.” | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| One is beginning to learn to joke and talk; | 11 | ··˘/˘······ |
| The other can already recite poems and songs. | 13 | ·/˘·˘/˘˘//˘·· |
| At morning they play clinging about my feet; | 11 | ·/˘··/˘···· |
| At night they sleep pillowed against my dress. | 10 | ····/˘···· |
| Why, children, did you reach the world so late, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Coming to me just when my years are spent? | 10 | /˘········ |
| Young things draw our feelings to them; | 9 | ···/˘/˘·· |
| Old people easily give their hearts. | 9 | ·/˘/˘˘··· |
| The sweetest vintage at last turns sour; | 10 | ·/˘/˘···/˘ |
| The full moon in the end begins to wane. | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| And so with men the bonds of love and affection | 12 | ·········˘/˘ |
| Soon may change to a load of sorrow and care. | 11 | ·······/˘·· |
| But all the world is bound by love’s ties; | 9 | ········· |
| Why did I think that I alone should escape? | 11 | ······˘/·˘/ |
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.