From a Child
Madam, as in some climes the warmer sunMakes it full summer ere the spring's begun,And with ripe fruit the bending boughs can load,Before our violets dare look abroad;So measure not by any common useThe early love your brighter eyes produce.When lately your fair hand in woman's weedWrapp'd my glad head, I wish'd me so indeed,That hasty time might never make me growOut of those favours you afford me now;That I might ever such indulgence find,And you not blush, nor think yourself too kind;Who now, I fear, while I these joys express,Begin to think how you may make them less.The sound of love makes your soft heart afraid,And guard itself, though but a child invade,And innocently at your white breast throwA dart as white-a ball of new fallen snow.
Words in this poem
- innocently adv.
- In an innocent manner.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
From a Child is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poetical Works of Edmund Waller and Sir John Denham, Project Gutenberg ebook #12322; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Edmund Waller, From a Child, in Poetical Works (1645–1668), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12322, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/waller-denham/from-a-child.html, id L09044.
Form and metre
From a Child is 18 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 78% of the lines: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 28% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in heroic couplets, 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--BBCCD-EEFFGGDD sunA · begunA · load · abroad · useB · produceB · weedC · indeedC · growD · now · findE · kindE · expressF · lessF · afraidG · invadeG · throwD · snowD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Madam, as in some climes the warmer sun | 10 | /˘·····/˘· |
| Makes it full summer ere the spring's begun, | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| And with ripe fruit the bending boughs can load, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Before our violets dare look abroad; | 10 | ··//˘˘··˘/ |
| So measure not by any common use | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| The early love your brighter eyes produce. | 10 | ·/˘··/˘·˘/ |
| When lately your fair hand in woman's weed | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Wrapp'd my glad head, I wish'd me so indeed, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| That hasty time might never make me grow | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Out of those favours you afford me now; | 10 | ···/˘·˘/·· |
| That I might ever such indulgence find, | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘· |
| And you not blush, nor think yourself too kind; | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| Who now, I fear, while I these joys express, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Begin to think how you may make them less. | 10 | ˘/········ |
| The sound of love makes your soft heart afraid, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| And guard itself, though but a child invade, | 10 | ··˘/····˘/ |
| And innocently at your white breast throw | 10 | ·/˘˘˘····· |
| A dart as white-a ball of new fallen snow. | 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.