Analysis of Insects
John Clare 1793 (Helpston) – 1864 (St Andrew's Hospital)
These tiny loiterers on the barley's beard,
And happy units of a numerous herd
Of playfellows, the laughing Summer brings,
Mocking the sunshine on their glittering wings,
How merrily they creep, and run, and fly!
No kin they bear to labour's drudgery,
Smoothing the velvet of the pale hedge-rose;
And where they fly for dinner no one knows -
The dew-drops feed them not - they love the shine
Of noon, whose suns may bring them golden wine
All day they're playing in their Sunday dress -
When night reposes, for they can do no less;
Then, to the heath-bell's purple hood they fly,
And like to princes in their slumbers lie,
Secure from rain, and dropping dews, and all,
In silken beds and roomy painted hall.
So merrily they spend their summer-day,
Now in the corn-fields, now in the new-mown hay.
One almost fancies that such happy things,
With coloured hoods and richly burnished wings,
Are fairy folk, in splendid masquerade
Disguised, as if of mortal folk afraid,
Keeping their joyous pranks a mystery still,
Lest glaring day should do their secrets ill.
Scheme | ABCCDEFFGGHHDDIIJJCCKKLL |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11011011 01010101001 11010101 1001111001 1100110101 111111100 1001010111 0111110111 0111111101 1111111101 111100111 111111111 1101110111 011100111 0111010101 0101010101 1100111101 10011100111 111011101 1101010101 110101001 0111110101 10110101001 1101111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,042 |
Words | 186 |
Sentences | 5 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 24 |
Lines Amount | 24 |
Letters per line (avg) | 35 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 832 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 184 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 16, 2023
- 57 sec read
- 130 Views
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"Insects" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/22247/insects>.
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