Old Shellover
'Come!' said Old Shellover.'What?' says Creep.'The horny old Gardener's fast asleep;The fat cock ThrushTo his nest has gone;And the dew shines brightIn the rising Moon;Old Sallie Worm from her hole doth peep:Come!' said Old Shellover.'Aye!' said Creep.
About this text
Old Shellover 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, Old Shellover, in Peacock Pie (1913), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3753, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/de-la-mare-peacock-pie/old-shellover.html, id L12570.
Form and metre
Old Shellover is 10 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 80%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 5.5 syllables. 20% 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 ABB----BAB shelloverA · creepB · asleepB · thrush · gone · bright · moon · peepB · shelloverA · creepB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| 'Come!' said Old Shellover. | 6 | ······ |
| 'What?' says Creep. | 3 | ··· |
| 'The horny old Gardener's fast asleep; | 9 | ·/˘·/˘·˘/ |
| The fat cock Thrush | 4 | ···· |
| To his nest has gone; | 5 | ····· |
| And the dew shines bright | 5 | ····· |
| In the rising Moon; | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Old Sallie Worm from her hole doth peep: | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| Come!' said Old Shellover. | 6 | ······ |
| 'Aye!' said Creep. | 3 | ··· |
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.