Analysis of The Lofty Sky

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



To-day I want the sky,
The tops of the high hills,
Above the last man's house,
His hedges, and his cows,
Where, if I will, I look
Down even on sheep and rook,
And of all things that move
See buzzards only above:-
Past all trees, past furze
And thorn, where nought deters
The desire of the eye
For sky, nothing but sky.
I sicken of the woods
And all the multitudes
Of hedge-trees. They are no more
Than weeds upon this floor
Of the river of air
Leagues deep, leagues wide, where
I am like a fish that lives
In weeds and mud and gives
What's above him no thought.
I might be a tench for aught
That I can do to-day
Down on the wealden clay.
Even the tench has days
When he floats up and plays
Among the lily leaves
And sees the sky, or grieves
Not if he nothing sees:
While I, I know that trees
Under that lofty sky
Are weeds, fields mud, and I
Would arise and go far
To where the lilies are.


Scheme ABCDEEFGBHAAIJKKLLMMNNOOPPQQRRAASS
Poetic Form
Metre 111101 011011 010111 110011 111111 1101101 011111 1101001 11111 011101 0010101 111011 110101 01010 1111111 110111 101011 11111 1110111 010101 101111 1110111 111111 11011 100111 111101 010101 010111 111101 111111 101101 111101 101011 110101
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 864
Words 183
Sentences 6
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 34
Lines Amount 34
Letters per line (avg) 20
Words per line (avg) 5
Letters per stanza (avg) 680
Words per stanza (avg) 180
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 26, 2023

55 sec read
129

Edward Thomas

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

All Edward Thomas poems | Edward Thomas Books

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