Analysis of A Christmas Folk-Song

Lizette Woodworth Reese 1856 (Waverly) – 1935



The little Jesus came to town;
The wind blew up, the wind blew down;
Out in the street the wind was bold;
Now who would house Him from the cold?

Then opened wide a stable door,
Fair were the rushes on the floor;
The Ox put forth a horned head :
'Come, Little Lord, here make Thy bed.'

Up rose the Sheep were folded near:
'Thou Lamb of God, come, enter here.'
He entered there to rush and reed,
Who was the Lamb of God, indeed.

The little Jesus came to town;
With Ox and Sheep He laid Him down;
Peace to the byre, peace to the fold,
For that they housed Him from the cold!


Scheme Aabb ccdd xxee Aabb
Poetic Form Quatrain  (75%)
Metre 01010111 01110111 10010111 11111101 11010101 10010101 0111011 11011111 11010101 11111101 11011101 11011101 01010111 11011111 11011101 11111101
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 564
Words 119
Sentences 6
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 16
Letters per line (avg) 27
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 107
Words per stanza (avg) 29
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

35 sec read
104

Lizette Woodworth Reese

Lizette Woodworth Reese was an American poet. more…

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