Analysis of The Cuckoo
Edward Thomas 1878 (London Borough of Lambeth) – 1917 (Pas-de-Calais)
That's the cuckoo, you say. I cannot hear it.
When last I heard it I cannot recall; but I know
Too well the year when first I failed to hear it -
It was drowned by my man groaning out to his sheep 'Ho! Ho!'
Ten times with an angry voice he shouted
'Ho! Ho!' but not in anger, for that was his way.
He died that Summer, and that is how I remember
The cuckoo calling, the children listening, and me saying 'Nay'.
And now, as you said, 'There it is', I was hearing
Not the cuckoo at all, but my man's 'Ho! Ho!' instead.
And I think that even if I could lose my deafness
The cuckoo's note would be drowned by the voice of my dead.
Scheme | ABAB XCXC XDXD |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain |
Metre | 1011111011 111111101111 11011111111 11111110111111 1111101110 111101011111 1111001111010 011001010001101 011111111110 101111111101 0111101111110 0101111101111 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 623 |
Words | 134 |
Sentences | 13 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 12 |
Letters per line (avg) | 39 |
Words per line (avg) | 11 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 154 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 43 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on May 01, 2023
- 40 sec read
- 115 Views
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"The Cuckoo" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 8 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/9887/the-cuckoo>.
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