Analysis of On Dawlish Beach
On my walk, I stumble over sharp
stones, sink into sand, then stoop
to set an injured beetle on the sea wall.
Up above, the train I ride on weekdays
hugs Dawlish beach, its yellow picnic
cloth spread out under the sky.
Startled by flapping wings, I jump
back as a seagull swoops to gobble
up the tasty morsel I left uncovered.
Often you wait all week for a metaphor,
then two turn up on the same day
like apple green country buses.
| Scheme | XXX XXX XXX XXX |
|---|---|
| Poetic Form | |
| Metre | 111110101 1101111 11110101011 101011111 1111101 1111001 10110111 11011110 10101011010 10111110100 11111011 11011010 |
| Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
| Characters | 434 |
| Words | 90 |
| Sentences | 4 |
| Stanzas | 4 |
| Stanza Lengths | 3, 3, 3, 3 |
| Lines Amount | 12 |
| Letters per line (avg) | 28 |
| Words per line (avg) | 7 |
| Letters per stanza (avg) | 85 |
| Words per stanza (avg) | 21 |
About this poem
The train mentioned is the line from Exeter to Dawlish. I travelled on it twice a day from autumn 1976 through to the summer of 1977. The train line runs between the cliffs and the beach. I hadn't thought about the place in years. Definitely a poem about the past. The metaphors referred to concerning the beetle and the seagull are to do with the idea of 'helper' and 'helped'
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"On Dawlish Beach" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 9 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/176897/on-dawlish-beach>.
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