Analysis of The Shepherds Calendar - February - A Thaw
John Clare 1793 (Helpston) – 1864 (St Andrew's Hospital)
The snow is gone from cottage tops
The thatch moss glows in brighter green
And eves in quick succession drops
Where grinning ides once hath been
Pit patting Wi a pleasant noise
In tubs set by the cottage door
And ducks and geese wi happy joys
Douse in the yard pond brimming oer
The sun peeps thro the window pane
Which childern mark wi laughing eye
And in the wet street steal again
To tell each other spring is nigh
And as young hope the past recalls
In playing groups will often draw
Building beside the sunny walls
Their spring-play-huts of sticks or straw
And oft in pleasures dreams they hie
Round homsteads by the village side
Scratting the hedgrow mosses bye
Where painted pooty shells abide
Mistaking oft the ivy spray
For leaves that come wi budding spring
And wondering in their search for play
Why birds delay to build and sing
The milkmaid singing leaves her bed
As glad as happy thoughts can be
While magpies chatter oer her head
As jocund in the change as she
Her cows around the closes stray
Nor lingering wait the foddering boy
Tossing the molehills in their play
And staring round in frolic joy
Ploughmen go whistling to their toils
And yoke again the rested plough
And mingling oer the mellow soils
Boys' shouts and whips are noising now
The shepherd now is often seen
By warm banks oer his work to bend
Or oer a gate or stile to lean
Chattering to a passing friend
Odd hive bees fancying winter oer
And dreaming in their combs of spring
Creeps on the slab beside their door
And strokes its legs upon its wing
While wild ones half asleep are humming
Round snowdrop bells a feeble note
And pigions coo of summer coming
Picking their feathers on the cote
The barking dogs by lane and wood
Drive sheep afield from foddering ground
And eccho in her summer mood
Briskly mocks the cheery sound
The flocks as from a prison broke
Shake their wet fleeces in the sun
While following fast a misty smoke
Reeks from the moist grass as they run
Nor more behind his masters heels
The dog creeps oer his winter pace
But cocks his tail and oer the fields
Runs many a wild and random chase
Following in spite of chiding calls
The startld cat wi harmless glee
Scaring her up the weed green walls
Or mossy mottld apple tree
As crows from morning perches flye
He barks and follows them in vain
Een larks will catch his nimble eye
And off he starts and barks again
Wi breathless haste and blinded guess
Oft following where the hare hath gone
Forgetting in his joys excess
His frolic puppy days are done
The gossips saunter in the sun
As at the spring from door to door
Of matters in the village done
And secret newsings mutterd oer
Young girls when they each other meet
Will stand their tales of love to tell
While going on errands down the street
Or fetching water from the well
A calm of pleasure listens round
And almost whispers winter bye
While fancy dreams of summer sounds
And quiet rapture fills the eye
The sun beams on the hedges lye
The south wind murmurs summer soft
And maids hang out white cloaths to dry
Around the eldern skirted croft
Each barns green thatch reeks in the sun
Its mate the happy sparrow calls
And as nest building spring begun
Peeps in the holes about the walls
The wren a sunny side the stack
Wi short tail ever on the strunt
Cockd gadding up above his back
Again for dancing gnats will hunt
The gladdend swine bolt from the sty
And round the yard in freedom run
Or stretching in their slumbers lye
Beside the cottage in the sun
The young horse whinneys to its mate
And sickens from the threshers door
Rubbing the straw yards banded gate
Longing for freedom on the moor
Hens leave their roosts wi cackling calls
To see the barn door free from snow
And cocks flye up the mossy walls
To clap their spangld wings and crow
About the steeples sunny top
The jackdaw flocks resemble spring
And in the stone archd windows pop
Wi summer noise and wanton wing
The small birds think their wants are oer
To see the snow hills fret again
And from the barns chaff litterd door
Betake them to the greening plain
The woodmans robin startles coy
Nor longer at his elbow comes
To peck wi hungers eager joy
Mong mossy stulps the litterd crumbs
Neath hedge and walls that screen the wind
The gnats for play will Hock together
And een poor flyes odd hopes will find
To vent
Scheme | ABAXCDCD EFGFHIHI XJFJKLKL MNMNKOKO PQPQ BRBR DLDLLSLS XTXTUVUV XWXWHNHN FEFGXXXV VDVDYZYZ TFXFFXFX VHVH 1 J1 X FVFV2 D2 X H3 H3 4 L4 L DGDEO5 O5 6 X6 X |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 01111101 01110101 01010101 1101111 11010101 01110101 01011101 10011101 01110101 1111101 00011101 11110111 0111011 01011101 10010101 11111111 01010111 1110101 101101 1101101 01010101 11111101 010001111 11011101 0110101 11110111 1110101 1100111 01010101 11001011 1001011 01010101 1110111 01010101 010010101 1101111 01011101 11111111 11011111 10010101 1111101 01001111 11010111 01110111 111101110 1110101 01111010 10110101 01011101 1101111 0100101 1010101 01110101 11110001 110010101 11011111 11011101 01111101 11110101 110010101 100011101 0111101 10010111 111101 11110101 11010101 11111101 01110101 11010101 110010111 0100111 11010111 01010001 11011111 11000101 010111 11111101 11111111 110110101 11010101 01110101 0110101 11011101 01010101 01110101 01110101 01111111 0101101 11111001 11010101 01110101 10010101 01010101 11110101 11010111 01110111 0111101 01010101 1100111 01010001 0111111 011011 10011101 10110101 111111001 11011111 0111011 1111101 01010101 0110101 00011101 11010101 01111111 11011101 0101111 01110101 0110101 1101111 1111101 111011 11011101 011111010 01111111 11 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 4,160 |
Words | 796 |
Sentences | 1 |
Stanzas | 18 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8, 4, 4, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 4, 4, 8, 8, 8, 4 |
Lines Amount | 124 |
Letters per line (avg) | 28 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 194 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 44 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 3:59 min read
- 91 Views
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"The Shepherds Calendar - February - A Thaw" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 8 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/22326/the-shepherds-calendar---february---a-thaw>.
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