The poem has three stanzas. The first two have eight lines, whereas the third stanza is only four lines long. In the first stanza we are introduced to the situation and we learn about the very close connection that exists between the child and the person standing by. In the second stanza we are told about the speaker's sensations when his/her father passed away and he/she relates them to the present situation. In the final stanza the speaker then again prays for the little child to survive.

All lines containing eight syllables the poem has a very regular rhythm. The rhyming structure could be expressed as `ababacca' for the first stanza, `dedefgfg' for the second stanza and `hihi' for the third stanza. The sentences are of a normal length apart from `Oh, little body, do not die.', which seems a bit shorter but doesn't need...