Analysis of Country Letter

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



Dear brother robin this comes from us all
With our kind love and could Gip write and all
Though but a dog he'd have his love to spare
For still he knows and by your corner chair
The moment he comes in he lyes him down
and seems to fancy you are in the town.
This leaves us well in health thank God for that
For old acquaintance Sue has kept your hat
Which mother brushes ere she lays it bye
and every sunday goes upstairs to cry
Jane still is yours till you come back agen
and neer so much as dances with the men
and ned the woodman every week comes in
and asks about you kindly as our kin
and he with this and goody Thompson sends
Remembrances with those of all our friends
Father with us sends love untill he hears
and mother she has nothing but her tears
Yet wishes you like us in health the same
and longs to see a letter with your name
So loving brother don't forget to write
Old Gip lies on the hearth stone every night
Mother can't bear to turn him out of doors
and never noises now of dirty floors
Father will laugh but lets her have her way
and Gip for kindness get a double pay
So Robin write and let us quickly see
You don't forget old friends no more than we
Nor let my mother have so much to blame
To go three journeys ere your letter came.


Scheme AABBCCDDEECFGGHHIJKKLLMMNNOOKK
Poetic Form Tetractys  (20%)
Metre 1101011111 11011011101 1101111111 1111011101 0101101111 0111011001 1111011111 1101011111 1101011111 0100110111 111111111 0111110101 01010100110 01011101101 0111010101 01001111101 101111111 0101110101 1101110101 0111010111 1101010111 11110111001 1011111111 0101011101 1011110101 0111010101 1101011101 1101111111 1111011111 1111011101
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 1,232
Words 256
Sentences 3
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 30
Lines Amount 30
Letters per line (avg) 33
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 994
Words per stanza (avg) 254
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 23, 2023

1:18 min read
73

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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