Analysis of In The Poppy Field

James Stephens 1882 (Dublin) – 1950



Mad Patsy said, he said to me,
That every morning he could see
An angel walking on the sky;
Across the sunny skies of morn
He threw great handfuls far and nigh
Of poppy seed among the corn;
And then, he said, the angels run
To see the poppies in the sun.

A poppy is a devil weed,
I said to him - he disagreed;
He said the devil had no hand
In spreading flowers tall and fair
Through corn and rye and meadow land,
by garth and barrow everywhere:
The devil has not any flower,
But only money in his power.

And then he stretched out in the sun
And rolled upon his back for fun:
He kicked his legs and roared for joy
Because the sun was shining down:
He said he was a little boy
And would not work for any clown:
He ran and laughed behind a bee,
And danced for very ecstasy.


Scheme AABCBCDD EEFGFGHH DDIJIJAA
Poetic Form
Metre 11011111 110010111 11010101 01010111 1111101 11010101 01110101 11010001 01010101 11111001 11010111 01010101 1101011 1101010 010111010 110100110 01111001 01011111 11110111 01011101 11110101 01111101 11010101 01110100
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 755
Words 159
Sentences 4
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 8, 8, 8
Lines Amount 24
Letters per line (avg) 25
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 198
Words per stanza (avg) 52
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

47 sec read
85

James Stephens

James Stephens was an Irish Republican and the founding member of an originally unnamed revolutionary organisation in Dublin on 17 March 1858, later to become known as the Irish Republican Brotherhood, also referred to as the Irish Revolutionary Brotherhood by contemporaries. more…

All James Stephens poems | James Stephens Books

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