Analysis of The Shadow People
Francis Ledwidge 1887 (Slane) – 1917 (Boezinge)
Old lame Bridget doesn't hear
Fairy music in the grass
When the gloaming's on the mere
And the shadow people pass:
Never hears their slow grey feet
Coming from the village street
Just beyond the parson's wall,
Where the clover globes are sweet
And the mushroom's parasol
Opens in the moonlit rain.
Every night I hear them call
From their long and merry train.
Old lame Bridget says to me,
"It is just your fancy, child."
She cannot believe I see
Laughing faces in the wild,
Hands that twinkle in the sedge
Bowing at the water's edge
Where the finny minnows quiver,
Shaping on a blue wave's ledge
Bubble foam to sail the river.
And the sunny hands to me
Beckon ever, beckon ever.
Oh! I would be wild and free,
And with the shadow people be.
Scheme | ABCBDDEDEFEFGHGHIIJIJGJGG |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1110101 1010001 101101 001101 1011111 1010101 101011 1010111 0011 100011 10011111 1110101 1110111 1111101 1100111 1010001 1110001 1010101 1011010 1010111 10111010 0010111 10101010 1111101 0101101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 723 |
Words | 140 |
Sentences | 8 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 25 |
Lines Amount | 25 |
Letters per line (avg) | 23 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 580 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 137 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 43 sec read
- 46 Views
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"The Shadow People" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 21 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/13838/the-shadow-people>.
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