Analysis of The Snare

James Stephens 1882 (Dublin) – 1950



I hear a sudden cry of pain!
There is a rabbit in a snare:
Now I hear the cry again,
But I cannot tell from where.

But I cannot tell from where
He is calling out for aid!
Crying on the frightened air,
Making everything afraid!

Making everything afraid!
Wrinkling up his little face!
And he cries again for aid;
- and I cannot find the place!

And I cannot find the place
Where his paw is in the snare!
Little One! Oh, Little One!
I am searching everywhere!


Scheme xaxA AbaB BcbC Caxa
Poetic Form Quatrain 
Metre 11010111 11010001 1110101 1110111 1110111 1110111 1010101 101001 101001 10011101 0110111 0110101 0110101 1111001 1011101 111010
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 448
Words 91
Sentences 12
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 16
Letters per line (avg) 22
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 88
Words per stanza (avg) 22
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 19, 2023

27 sec read
788

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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