The Window
Behind the blinds I sit and watchThe people passing - passing by;And not a single one can seeMy tiny watching eye.
They cannot see my little room,All yellowed with the shaded sun;They do not even know I'm here;Nor'll guess when I am gone.
About this text
The Window 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, The Window, in Peacock Pie (1913), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3753, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/de-la-mare-peacock-pie/the-window.html, id L12582.
Form and metre
The Window is 8 lines in 2 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 97%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.4 syllables. 25% 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 -AAA watch · byA · seeA · eyeA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Behind the blinds I sit and watch | 8 | ········ |
| The people passing - passing by; | 8 | ·/˘/˘/˘· |
| And not a single one can see | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| My tiny watching eye. | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| They cannot see my little room, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| All yellowed with the shaded sun; | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| They do not even know I'm here; | 7 | ···/··· |
| Nor'll guess when I am 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.