Some One
Some one came knockingAt my wee, small door;Some one came knocking,I'm sure - sure - sure;I listened, I opened,I looked to left and right,But naught there was a-stirringIn the still dark night;Only the busy beetleTap-tapping in the wall,Only from the forestThe screech-owl's call,Only the cricket whistlingWhile the dewdrops fall,So I know not who came knocking,At all, at all, at all.
About this text
Some One 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, Some One, in Peacock Pie (1913), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3753, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/de-la-mare-peacock-pie/some-one.html, id L12568.
Form and metre
Some One is 16 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%). 93% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 5.8 syllables. 8 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 31% 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 A-A--B-BCC-C-CAC knockingA · door · knockingA · sure · opened · rightB · stirring · nightB · beetleC · wallC · forest · callC · whistling · fallC · knockingA · allC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Some one came knocking | 5 | ···/˘ |
| At my wee, small door; | 5 | ····· |
| Some one came knocking, | 5 | ···/˘ |
| I'm sure - sure - sure; | 4 | ···· |
| I listened, I opened, | 6 | ·/˘·/˘ |
| I looked to left and right, | 6 | ······ |
| But naught there was a-stirring | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| In the still dark night; | 5 | ····· |
| Only the busy beetle | 7 | /˘·/˘/˘ |
| Tap-tapping in the wall, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Only from the forest | 6 | /˘··/˘ |
| The screech-owl's call, | 4 | ···· |
| Only the cricket whistling | 7 | /˘·/˘/˘ |
| While the dewdrops fall, | 5 | ····· |
| So I know not who came knocking, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| At all, at all, at all. | 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.