Lyric Poem · Childhood
God Gave To Me A Child In Part
1GOD gave to me a child in part,
2Yet wholly gave the father's heart:
3Child of my soul, O whither now,
4Unborn, unmothered, goest thou?
5You came, you went, and no man wist;
6Hapless, my child, no breast you kist;
7On no dear knees, a privileged babbler, clomb,
8Nor knew the kindly feel of home.
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“God Gave To Me A Child In Part” by Robert Louis Stevenson — quilloak.com/poems/god-gave-to-me-a-child-in-part
Quick facts
- Poem
- God Gave To Me A Child In Part
- Poet
- Robert Louis Stevenson
- Length
- 16 lines
- Form
- Lyric Poem
- Themes
- Childhood, Peace, Love
Craft notes
How this poem works
Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.
- Shape
- 16 lines · 4 quatrains
- Line length
- Mostly 8-syllable lines (tetrameter length).
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Text, source & rights
A traceable edition
Full-text display is based on the committed source record and a United States term-expiry review.
- Author record
- Robert Louis Stevenson1850–1894
- Source record
- PoetryDBGod Gave To Me A Child In Part by robert-louis-stevenson, PoetryDB transcription
- Display decision
- Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
- Publication record
- Not recorded in the imported source
- Text fingerprint
- SHA-256 a3f68167b74e3b6e…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.