Analysis of The Scarecrow

Walter de la Mare 1873 (Charlton, London) – 1956 (Twickenham)



All winter through I bow my head
beneath the driving rain;
the North Wind powders me with snow
and blows me black again;
at midnight 'neath a maze of stars
I flame with glittering rime,
and stand above the stubble, stiff
as mail at morning-prime.
But when that child called Spring, and all
his host of children come,
scattering their buds and dew upon
these acres of my home,
some rapture in my rags awakes;
I lift void eyes and scan
the sky for crows, those ravening foes,
of my strange master, Man.
I watch him striding lank behind
his clashing team, and know
soon will the wheat swish body high
where once lay a sterile snow;
soon I shall gaze across a sea
of sun-begotten grain,
which my unflinching watch hath sealed
for harvest once again.


Scheme ABCDEFGFHFIFEJKJLCMCNBOD
Poetic Form
Metre 11011111 010101 01110111 011101 1110111 1111001 01010101 111101 11111101 111101 100110101 110111 1100111 111101 0111111 111101 11110101 110101 11011101 1110101 11110101 110101 11010111 110101
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 730
Words 139
Sentences 4
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 24
Lines Amount 24
Letters per line (avg) 25
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 589
Words per stanza (avg) 137
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 18, 2023

41 sec read
502

Walter de la Mare

Walter John de la Mare was an English poet short story writer and novelist best remembered for his works for children and The Listeners He was born in Kent and was educated at St Pauls Cathedral School His first book Songs of Childhood was published under the name Walter Ramal His 1921 novel Memoirs of a Midget won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction more…

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    The repetition of similar sounds at the ends of words or within words is known as _______.
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    C stanza
    D rhyme