The Tired Cupid
The thin moonlight with trickling ray,Thridding the boughs of silver may,Trembles in beauty, pale and cool,On folded flower, and mantled pool.All in a haze the rushes lean--And he--he sits, with chin betweenHis two cold hands; his bare feet setDeep in the grasses, green and wet.About his head a hundred ringsOf gold loop down to meet his wings,Whose feathers arched their stillness throughGleam with slow-gathering drops of dew.The mouse-bat peers; the stealthy voleCreeps from the covert of its hole;A shimmering moth its pinions furls,Grey in the moonshine of his curls;'Neath the faint stars the night-airs stray,Scattering the fragrance of the may;And with each stirring of the boughShadow beclouds his childlike brow.
Words in this poem
- stillness n.
- The quality or state of being still; quietness; silence; calmness; inactivity.
- vole n.
- A deal at cards that draws all the tricks. [F.]
- shimmering n.
- A gleam or glimmering.
- moonshine n.
- The light of the moon.
- childlike a.
- Resembling a child, or that which belongs to children; becoming a child; meek; submissive; dutiful.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Tired Cupid 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 Tired Cupid, in The Listeners and Other Poems (1912), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22569, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/de-la-mare-listeners/the-tired-cupid.html, id L17081.
Form and metre
The Tired Cupid is 20 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%). 91% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.1 syllables. 30% 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 AABBCCDDEEFFGGHHAAII rayA · mayA · coolB · poolB · leanC · betweenC · setD · wetD · ringsE · wingsE · throughF · dewF · voleG · holeG · furlsH · curlsH · strayA · mayA · boughI · browI
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 |
|---|---|---|
| The thin moonlight with trickling ray, | 8 | ··/··/˘· |
| Thridding the boughs of silver may, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Trembles in beauty, pale and cool, | 8 | /˘·/˘··· |
| On folded flower, and mantled pool. | 8 | ·/˘/·/˘· |
| All in a haze the rushes lean-- | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And he--he sits, with chin between | 8 | ········ |
| His two cold hands; his bare feet set | 8 | ········ |
| Deep in the grasses, green and wet. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| About his head a hundred rings | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Of gold loop down to meet his wings, | 8 | ········ |
| Whose feathers arched their stillness through | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Gleam with slow-gathering drops of dew. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The mouse-bat peers; the stealthy vole | 9 | ·····/˘·· |
| Creeps from the covert of its hole; | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| A shimmering moth its pinions furls, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Grey in the moonshine of his curls; | 8 | ···/···· |
| 'Neath the faint stars the night-airs stray, | 8 | ········ |
| Scattering the fragrance of the may; | 8 | /˘·/˘··· |
| And with each stirring of the bough | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Shadow beclouds his childlike brow. | 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.