A Cradle Song
"Coth yani me von gilli beg,'N heur ve thu more a creena."
The angels are stoopingAbove your bed;They weary of troopingWith the whimpering dead.
God's laughing in heavenTo see you so good;The Shining SevenAre gay with His mood.
I kiss you and kiss you,My pigeon, my own;Ah, how I shall miss youWhen you have grown.
Words in this poem
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Cradle Song is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #38877; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: W. B. Yeats, A Cradle Song, in Poems (1895), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #38877, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/yeats-poems/a-cradle-song.html, id L16654.
Form and metre
A Cradle Song is 14 lines in 4 stanzas. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 2 of its 4 stanzas. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 81%). 87% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 5.7 syllables. 4 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 36% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic trimeter.
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 ABAB stoopingA · bedB · troopingA · deadB
- 3 A-A- heavenA · good · sevenA · mood
- 4 ABAB youA · ownB · youA · grownB
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| "Coth yani me von gilli beg, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| 'N heur ve thu more a creena." | 8 | ········ |
| The angels are stooping | 6 | ·/˘·/˘ |
| Above your bed; | 4 | ···· |
| They weary of trooping | 6 | ·/˘·/˘ |
| With the whimpering dead. | 6 | ··/˘˘· |
| God's laughing in heaven | 6 | ·/˘·/˘ |
| To see you so good; | 5 | ····· |
| The Shining Seven | 5 | ·/˘/˘ |
| Are gay with His mood. | 5 | ····· |
| I kiss you and kiss you, | 6 | ······ |
| My pigeon, my own; | 5 | ·/˘·· |
| Ah, how I shall miss you | 6 | ······ |
| When you have grown. | 4 | ···· |
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.