On the Grasshopper and Cricket
The poetry of earth is never dead:When all the birds are faint with the hot sun,And hide in cooling trees, a voice will runFrom hedge to hedge about the new-mown mead;That is the Grasshopper's--he takes the leadIn summer luxury,--he has never doneWith his delights; for when tired out with funHe rests at ease beneath some pleasant weed.The poetry of earth is ceasing never:On a lone winter evening, when the frostHas wrought a silence, from the stove there shrillsThe Cricket's song, in warmth increasing ever,And seems to one in drowsiness half lost,The Grasshopper's among some grassy hills.
Words in this poem
- cooling a.
- Adapted to cool and refresh; allaying heat.
- lone n.
- A lane. See Loanin.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
On the Grasshopper and Cricket is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems 1817, Project Gutenberg ebook #8209; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: John Keats, On the Grasshopper and Cricket, in Poems (1817) (1817), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8209, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/keats-1817/on-the-grasshopper-and-cricket.html, id L00415.
Form and metre
On the Grasshopper and Cricket is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABBCABBCDEFDEF. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%). 85% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 43% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 ABBCABBCDEFDEF deadA · sunB · runB · meadC · leadA · doneB · funB · weedC · neverD · frostE · shrillsF · everD · lostE · hillsF
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| The poetry of earth is never dead: | 10 | ·/˘˘···/˘· |
| When all the birds are faint with the hot sun, | 10 | ·········· |
| And hide in cooling trees, a voice will run | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| From hedge to hedge about the new-mown mead; | 10 | ·········· |
| That is the Grasshopper's--he takes the lead | 10 | ···/·˘···· |
| In summer luxury,--he has never done | 10 | ·/˘/˘˘··/· |
| With his delights; for when tired out with fun | 10 | ··˘/··/··· |
| He rests at ease beneath some pleasant weed. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| The poetry of earth is ceasing never: | 11 | ·/˘˘···/˘/˘ |
| On a lone winter evening, when the frost | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Has wrought a silence, from the stove there shrills | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| The Cricket's song, in warmth increasing ever, | 11 | ·/˘···˘/˘/˘ |
| And seems to one in drowsiness half lost, | 10 | ·····/˘˘·· |
| The Grasshopper's among some grassy hills. | 10 | ·/·˘···/˘· |
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.