Analysis of After Rain

Edward Thomas 1878 (London Borough of Lambeth) – 1917 (Pas-de-Calais)



The rain of a night and a day and a night
Stops at the light
Of this pale choked day. The peering sun
Sees what has been done.
The road under the trees has a border new
of purple hue
Inside the border of bright thin grass:
For all that has
Been left by November of leaves is torn
From hazel and thorn
And the greater trees. Throughout the copse
No dead leaf drops
On grey grass, green moss, burnt-orange fern,
At the wind's return:
The leaflets out of the ash-tree shed
Are thinly spread
In the road, like little black fish, inlaid,
As if they played.
What hangs from the myriad branches down there
So hard and bare
Is twelve yellow apples lovely to see
On one crab-tree.
And on each twig of every tree in the dell
Uncountable
Crystals both dark and bright of the the rain
That begins again.


Scheme AABBCCDEFFDGHHIIJJKKLLMMNO
Poetic Form
Metre 01101001001 1101 111110101 11111 01100110101 1101 010101111 1111 1110101111 11001 001010101 1111 111111101 10101 010110111 1101 001110111 1111 11101001011 1101 1110101011 1111 011111001001 1 1011011001 10101
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 774
Words 154
Sentences 7
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 26
Lines Amount 26
Letters per line (avg) 24
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 622
Words per stanza (avg) 152
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 14, 2023

46 sec read
274

Edward Thomas

Philip Edward Thomas was an Anglo-Welsh poet and essayist. more…

All Edward Thomas poems | Edward Thomas Books

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