Analysis of The Beautiful Stranger

John Clare 1793 (Helpston) – 1864 (St Andrew's Hospital)



I cannot know what country owns thee now,
With France's forest lilies on thy brow.
When England knew thee thou wert passing fair;
I never knew a foreign face so rare.
The world of waters rolls and rushes bye,
Nor lets me wander where thy vallies lie.
But surely France must be a pleasant place
That greets the stranger with so fair a face;
The English maiden blushes down the dance,
But few can equal the fair maid of France.
I saw thee lovely and I wished thee mine,
And the last song I ever wrote is thine.

Thy country's honour on thy face attends;
Men may be foes but beauty makes us friends.


Scheme AABBCCDDEEFF GG
Poetic Form
Metre 1101110111 1101010111 1101111101 1101010111 0111010101 111101111 1101110101 1101011101 0101010101 1111001111 1111001111 0011110111 110111101 1111110111
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 590
Words 116
Sentences 7
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 12, 2
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 33
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 234
Words per stanza (avg) 57
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

35 sec read
67

John Clare

John Clare was an English poet in his time he was commonly known as the Northamptonshire Peasant Poet more…

All John Clare poems | John Clare Books

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