Silver
Slowly, silently, now the moonWalks the night in her silver shoon:This way, and that, she peers and seesSilver fruit upon silver trees;One by one the casements catchHer beams beneath the silvery thatch;Couched in his kennel, like a log,With paws of silver sleeps the dogFrom their shadowy cote the white breasts peepOf doves in a silver-feathered sleep;A harvest mouse goes scampering by,With silver claws and silver eye;And moveless fish in the water gleamBy silver reeds in a silver stream.
Words in this poem
- kennel n.
- The water course of a street; a little canal or channel; a gutter; also, a puddle. Bp. Hall. [See Channel, Canal.]
- cote n.
- A cottage or hut. [See 1st Cot.]
- moveless a.
- Motionless; fixed.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Silver 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, Silver, in Peacock Pie (1913), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3753, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/de-la-mare-peacock-pie/silver.html, id L12625.
Form and metre
Silver is 14 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 84%). 93% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.3 syllables. 43% 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 AABBCCDDEEFFGG moonA · shoonA · seesB · treesB · catchC · thatchC · logD · dogD · peepE · sleepE · byF · eyeF · gleamG · streamG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Slowly, silently, now the moon | 7 | /˘/˘··· |
| Walks the night in her silver shoon: | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| This way, and that, she peers and sees | 8 | ········ |
| Silver fruit upon silver trees; | 8 | /˘···/˘· |
| One by one the casements catch | 8 | ········ |
| Her beams beneath the silvery thatch; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Couched in his kennel, like a log, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| With paws of silver sleeps the dog | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| From their shadowy cote the white breasts peep | 9 | ··/˘····· |
| Of doves in a silver-feathered sleep; | 9 | ····/˘/˘· |
| A harvest mouse goes scampering by, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| With silver claws and silver eye; | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And moveless fish in the water gleam | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| By silver reeds in a silver stream. | 9 | ·/˘···/˘· |
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.