The Burning Babe

Robert Southwell’s “The Burning Babe” consists of sixteen lines arranged in a single stanza. The poem is written in rhyming couplets, meaning that each pair of lines rhymes; therefore, there are 8 sets of rhymes in the poem. For example, lines 5 and 6 rhyme “shed” with “fed,” while lines 9 and 10 rhyme “thorns and “scorns.” The rhyming pairs assist with the momentum of the poem, propelling it forward. Most of the lines are written in iambic heptameter, meaning that there are seven iambs in each line. An iamb consists of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. This poetic structure is illustrated in the following line: “For which, as now on fire I am to work them to their good” (Line 13). As with the rhyming couplets, the use of the rhythmic iambic feet likewise assists with the forward movement of the poem, ushering the reader from one facet of the vision to another, deeper into the revelatory experience.

While modern readers may think some lines break this iambic pattern, what they are actually seeing is a poetic rendering of syllables. For example, to scan correctly, line 5 reads, “Who, scorched with excessive heat, such floods of tears did shed.” The word “scorched” here is pronounced with two syllables, making the iamb work. Similarly, in line 9, the word “fuel” becomes a two-syllable word: “My faultless breast the furnace is, the fuel wounding thorns.”