Alone
A very old womanLives in yon house--The squeak of the cricket,The stir of the mouse,Are all she knowsOf the earth and us.
Once she was young,Would dance and play,Like many anotherYoung popinjay;And run to her motherAt dusk of day.
And colours brightShe delighted in;The fiddle to hear,And to lift her chin,And sing as smallAs a twittering wren.
But age apaceComes at last to all;And a lone house filledWith the cricket's call;And the scampering mouseIn the hollow wall.
Words in this poem
- squeak v. i.
- To utter a sharp, shrill cry, usually of short duration; to cry with an acute tone, as an animal; or, to make a sharp, disagreeable noise, as a pipe or quill, a wagon wheel, a door; to creak. [Probably of imitative origin; cf. Sw. sqväka to croak, Icel. skvakka to give a sound as of water shaken in a bottle.]
- delighted a.
- Endowed with delight.
- twittering n.
- The act of one who, or that which, twitters.
- apace adv.
- With a quick pace; quick; fast; speedily. [Pref. a- + pace. OE. a pas at a walk, in which a is the article. See Pace.]
- lone n.
- A lane. See Loanin.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Alone is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Listeners and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #22569; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Walter de la Mare, Alone, in The Listeners and Other Poems (1912), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22569, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/de-la-mare-listeners/alone.html, id L17072.
Form and metre
Alone is 24 lines in 4 stanzas of 6 lines each. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 83%). 92% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 4.9 syllables. 6 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 38% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic trimeter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 -A-A-- woman · houseA · cricket · mouseA · knows · us
- 2 -ABABA young · playA · anotherB · popinjayA · motherB · dayA
- 3 -A-A-A bright · inA · hear · chinA · small · wrenA
- 4 -A-A-A apace · allA · filled · callA · mouse · wallA
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| A very old woman | 6 | ·/˘·/˘ |
| Lives in yon house-- | 4 | ···· |
| The squeak of the cricket, | 6 | ····/˘ |
| The stir of the mouse, | 5 | ····· |
| Are all she knows | 4 | ···· |
| Of the earth and us. | 5 | ····· |
| Once she was young, | 4 | ···· |
| Would dance and play, | 4 | ···· |
| Like many another | 6 | ·/˘˘/˘ |
| Young popinjay; | 4 | ·/˘˘ |
| And run to her mother | 6 | ····/˘ |
| At dusk of day. | 4 | ···· |
| And colours bright | 4 | ·/˘· |
| She delighted in; | 5 | ·˘/˘· |
| The fiddle to hear, | 5 | ·/˘·· |
| And to lift her chin, | 5 | ····· |
| And sing as small | 4 | ···· |
| As a twittering wren. | 6 | ··/˘˘· |
| But age apace | 4 | ··˘/ |
| Comes at last to all; | 5 | ····· |
| And a lone house filled | 6 | ·····˘ |
| With the cricket's call; | 5 | ··/˘· |
| And the scampering mouse | 6 | ··/˘˘· |
| In the hollow wall. | 5 | ··/˘· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.