Analysis of The Hillman’s Lass

Marjorie Lowry Christie Pickthall 1883 (Gunnersbury, London) – 1922 (Vancouver)



OVER the field where the grass is cool,
(Follow the road who must !)
With a song for the beech and the brown pool,
And the noiseless tread in the dust,
With a laugh for the lazy hours that go,
And the folk who pass us by.
(The trees they grow so broad, so low,
They shut me from the sky.)

Here be strawberries wild and sweet,
(Follow the road who may !)
And here's a rest for a bairn's feet
And a kiss at the close o' day.
And here's a cloud from the shining sea
Like a white moth in the night.
(On the edge o' the barley field, may be
The stars would show more bright.)

Cut me a flute where the reeds are brown.
(Follow the road who will !)
O, I'll dress you fair in a green gown
And a cloak that is finer still.
Your sleeves shall be o' the fairies' lawn,
Your shoon as red as the rose.
(Do you think that the wind which wakes at dawn
Will bring us a breath o' the snows ?)

O, the world's wide, and the world is long.
(Follow the road who may !)
And here's a lilt of the wild song
The Romany pipers play.
And 'Mine,' it sings, 'is the moon's shield,
And the cloak o' the cloud is mine.'
(Do you think that the lowland clover field
Is sweet as the upland pine ?)


Scheme ababcdcd eFefghgh ijijklkl mFmfnono
Poetic Form
Metre 100110111 100111 1011010011 0011001 10110101011 0011111 01111111 111101 1110101 100111 01011011 00110111 010110101 1011001 1011010111 011111 110110111 100111 111110011 00111101 111110101 1111101 1111011111 11101101 101100111 100111 01011011 0100101 01111011 00110111 111101101 1110101
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 1,164
Words 248
Sentences 18
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 8, 8, 8, 8
Lines Amount 32
Letters per line (avg) 27
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 214
Words per stanza (avg) 61
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:15 min read
16

Marjorie Lowry Christie Pickthall

Marjorie Lowry Christie Pickthall, was a Canadian writer who was born in England but lived in Canada from the time she was seven. She was once "thought to be the best Canadian poet of her generation." more…

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