Full Moon
One night as Dick lay half asleep,Into his drowsy eyesA great still light begins to creepFrom out the silent skies.It was lovely moon's, for whenHe raised his dreamy head,Her surge of silver filled the paneAnd streamed across his bed.So, for a while, each gazed at each -Dick and the solemn moon -Till, climbing slowly on her way,She vanished, and was gone.
Words in this poem
- dreamy a.
- Abounding in dreams or given to dreaming; appropriate to, or like, dreams; visionary.
- pane n.
- The narrow edge of a hammer head. See Peen. [F. panne.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Full Moon is in the public domain. This text is taken from Peacock Pie, a Book of Rhymes, Project Gutenberg ebook #3753; 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, Full Moon, in Peacock Pie (1913), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3753, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/de-la-mare-peacock-pie/full-moon.html, id L12584.
Form and metre
Full Moon is 12 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.9 syllables. 33% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See 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 ABAB-C-C---- asleepA · eyesB · creepA · skiesB · when · headC · pane · bedC · each · moon · way · gone
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 |
|---|---|---|
| One night as Dick lay half asleep, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Into his drowsy eyes | 6 | ···/˘· |
| A great still light begins to creep | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| From out the silent skies. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| It was lovely moon's, for when | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| He raised his dreamy head, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Her surge of silver filled the pane | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And streamed across his bed. | 6 | ··˘/·· |
| So, for a while, each gazed at each - | 8 | ········ |
| Dick and the solemn moon - | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Till, climbing slowly on her way, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| She vanished, and was gone. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
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.