Analysis of A Little Child Shall Lead Them
Only a little scrap of blue
Preserved with loving care,
But earth has not a brilliant hue
To me more bright and fair.
Strong drink, like a raging demon,
Laid on my heart his hand,
When my darling joined with others
The Loyal Legion band.
But mystic angels called away
My loved and precious child,
And o'er life's dark and stormy way
Swept waves of anguish wild.
This badge of the Loyal Legion
We placed upon her breast,
As she lay in her little coffin
Taking her last sweet rest.
To wear that badge as a token
She earnestly did crave,
So we laid it on her bosom
To wear it in the grave.
Where sorrow would never reach her
Nor harsh words smite her ear;
Nor her eyes in death dimmed slumber
Would ever shed a tear.
"What means this badge?" said her father,
Whom we had tried to save;
Who said, when we told her story,
"Don't put it in the grave."
We took the badge from her bosom
And laid it on a chair;
And men by drink deluded
Knelt by that badge in prayer.
And vowed in that hour of sorrow
From drink they would abstain;
And this little badge became the wedge
Which broke their galling chain.
And lifted the gloomy shadows
That overspread my life,
And flooding my home with gladness,
Made me a happy wife.
And this is why this scrap of blue
Is precious in my sight;
It changed my sad and gloomy home
From darkness into light.
Scheme | ABAB CDED FGFG CHXH CIJI KXKB KIXI JBXB XLXL XMEM ANXN |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (91%) |
Metre | 10010111 011101 11110101 111101 11101010 111111 11101110 010101 11010101 110101 010110101 111101 11101010 110101 111001010 100111 11111010 110011 11111010 111001 11011010 111101 10101110 110101 11111010 111111 11111010 111001 11011010 011101 0111010 111101 010110110 111101 011010101 111101 0100101 1111 0101111 110101 01111111 110011 11110101 110011 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,335 |
Words | 260 |
Sentences | 13 |
Stanzas | 11 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 44 |
Letters per line (avg) | 24 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 94 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 23 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 10, 2023
- 1:18 min read
- 162 Views
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"A Little Child Shall Lead Them" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/13697/a-little-child-shall-lead-them>.
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