Analysis of The Gypsy
Edward Thomas 1878 (London Borough of Lambeth) – 1917 (Pas-de-Calais)
A fortnight before Christmas Gypsies were everywhere:
Vans were drawn up on wastes, women trailed to the fair.
'My gentleman,' said one, 'you've got a lucky face.'
'And you've a luckier,' I thought, 'if such grace
And impudence in rags are lucky.' 'Give a penny
For the poor baby's sake.' 'Indeed I have not any
Unless you can give change for a sovereign, my dear.'
'Then just half a pipeful of tobacco can you spare?'
I gave it. With that much victory she laughed content.
I should have given more, but off and away she went
With her baby and her pink sham flowers to rejoin
The rest before I could translate to its proper coin
Gratitude for her grace. And I paid nothing then,
As I pay nothing now with the dipping of my pen
For her brother's music when he drummed the tambourine
And stamped his feet, which made the workmen passing grin,
While his mouth-organ changed to a rascally Bacchanal dance
'Over the hills and far away.' This and his glance
Outlasted all the fair, farmer, and auctioneer,
Cheap-jack, balloon-man, drover with crooked stick, and steer,
Pig, turkey, goose, and duck, Christmas corpses to be.
Not even the kneeling ox had eyes like the Romany.
That night he peopled for me the hollow wooded land,
More dark and wild than the stormiest heavens, that I searched and scanned
Like a ghost new-arrived. The gradations of the dark
Were like an underworld of death, but for the spark
In the Gypsy boy's black eyes as he played and stamped his tune,
'Over the hills and far away,' and a crescent moon.
Scheme | AABBCCDAEEFFGGHIJJDDCCKKLLMM |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 01011010010 101111101101 110011110101 01010011111 01011101010 101101111110 011111101011 11101101111 1111111001110 1111011100111 1010001110101 0101110111101 10101011101 1111011010111 101010111001 011111010101 1111011010101 100101011011 1010110001 1101110110101 110101101011 11001011110100 1111011010101 1101101001011101 1011010010101 01110111101 00101111110111 1001010100101 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 1,499 |
Words | 284 |
Sentences | 15 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 28 |
Lines Amount | 28 |
Letters per line (avg) | 42 |
Words per line (avg) | 10 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 1,178 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 273 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:24 min read
- 67 Views
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"The Gypsy" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 5 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/9892/the-gypsy>.
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