The Tailor
Few footsteps stray when dusk droops o'erThe tailor's old stone-lintelled door:There sits he stitching half asleep,Beside his smoky tallow dip.'Click, click,' his needle hastes, and shrillCries back the cricket 'neath the sill.Sometimes he stays, and o'er his threadLeans sidelong his old tousled head;Or stoops to peer with half-shut eyeWhen some strange footfall echoes by;Till clearer gleams his candle's sparkInto the dusty summer dark.Then from his crosslegs he gets down,To find how dark the evening's grown;And hunched-up in his door he'll hearThe cricket whistling crisp and clear;And so beneath the starry greyWill mutter half a seam away.
Words in this poem
- sidelong adv.
- Laterally; obliquely; in the direction of the side. [See Sideling, adv.]
- footfall n.
- A setting down of the foot; a footstep; the sound of a footstep.
- clearer n.
- One who, or that which, clears.
- starry a.
- Abounding with stars; adorned with stars.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Tailor 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, The Tailor, in The Listeners and Other Poems (1912), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22569, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/de-la-mare-listeners/the-tailor.html, id L17067.
Form and metre
The Tailor is 18 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 67% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.9 syllables. 39% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in octosyllabic couplets, other poems in iambic tetrameter.
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 ----AABBCCDD--EEFF o'er · door · asleep · dip · shrillA · sillA · threadB · headB · eyeC · byC · sparkD · darkD · down · grown · hearE · clearE · greyF · awayF
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Few footsteps stray when dusk droops o'er | 8 | ·/······ |
| The tailor's old stone-lintelled door: | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| There sits he stitching half asleep, | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| Beside his smoky tallow dip. | 8 | ˘/·/˘/˘· |
| 'Click, click,' his needle hastes, and shrill | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Cries back the cricket 'neath the sill. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Sometimes he stays, and o'er his thread | 8 | ˘/······ |
| Leans sidelong his old tousled head; | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| Or stoops to peer with half-shut eye | 8 | ········ |
| When some strange footfall echoes by; | 8 | ···/·/˘· |
| Till clearer gleams his candle's spark | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Into the dusty summer dark. | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Then from his crosslegs he gets down, | 8 | ········ |
| To find how dark the evening's grown; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And hunched-up in his door he'll hear | 8 | ········ |
| The cricket whistling crisp and clear; | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| And so beneath the starry grey | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Will mutter half a seam away. | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
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.