Summer Evening
The sandy cat by the Farmer's chairMews at his knee for dainty fare;Old Rover in his moss-greened houseMumbles a bone, and barks at a mouseIn the dewy fields the cattle lieChewing the cud 'neath a fading skyDobbin at manger pulls his hay:Gone is another summer's day.
Words in this poem
- mews n.
- An alley where there are stables; a narrow passage; a confined place. [Eng.] [Prop. pl. of mew. See Mew a cage.]
- dainty n.
- Value; estimation; the gratification or pleasure taken in anything. [OE. deinie, dainte, deintie, deyntee, OF. deintié delicacy, orig., dignity, honor, fr. L. dignitas, fr. dignus worthy. See Deign, and cf. Dignity.]
- rover n.
- One who practices robbery on the seas; a pirate. [D. roover a robber. See Rove, v. i.]
- fading n.
- An Irish dance; also, the burden of a song.
- dobbin n.
- An old jaded horse.
- manger n.
- A trough or open box in which fodder is placed for horses or cattle to eat. [F. mangeoire, fr. manger to eat, fr. L. manducare, fr. mandere to chew. Cf. Mandible, Manducate.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Summer Evening 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, Summer Evening, in Peacock Pie (1913), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3753, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/de-la-mare-peacock-pie/summer-evening.html, id L12611.
Form and metre
Summer Evening is 8 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%). 88% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.5 syllables. 62% 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 AABBCCDD chairA · fareA · houseB · mouseB · lieC · skyC · hayD · dayD
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 sandy cat by the Farmer's chair | 9 | ·/˘···/˘· |
| Mews at his knee for dainty fare; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Old Rover in his moss-greened house | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Mumbles a bone, and barks at a mouse | 9 | /˘······· |
| In the dewy fields the cattle lie | 9 | ··/˘··/˘· |
| Chewing the cud 'neath a fading sky | 9 | /˘····/˘· |
| Dobbin at manger pulls his hay: | 8 | /˘·/˘··· |
| Gone is another summer's day. | 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.