Analysis of Spear Thistle
John Clare 1793 (Helpston) – 1864 (St Andrew's Hospital)
Where the broad sheepwalk bare and brown
[Yields] scant grass pining after showers,
And winds go fanning up and down
The little strawy bents and nodding flowers,
There the huge thistle, spurred with many thorns,
The suncrackt upland's russet swells adorns.
Not undevoid of beauty there they come,
Armed warriors, waiting neither suns nor showers,
Guarding the little clover plots to bloom
While sheep nor oxen dare not crop their flowers
Unsheathing their own knobs of tawny flowers
When summer cometh in her hottest hours.
The pewit, swopping up and down
And screaming round the passer bye,
Or running oer the herbage brown
With copple crown uplifted high,
Loves in its clumps to make a home
Where danger seldom cares to come.
The yellowhammer, often prest
For spot to build and be unseen,
Will in its shelter trust her nest
When fields and meadows glow with green;
And larks, though paths go closely bye,
Will in its shade securely lie.
The partridge too, that scarce can trust
The open downs to be at rest,
Will in its clumps lie down, and dust
And prune its horseshoe-circled breast,
And oft in shining fields of green
Will lay and raise its brood unseen.
The sheep when hunger presses sore
May nip the clover round its nest;
But soon the thistle wounding sore
Relieves it from each brushing guest,
That leaves a bit of wool behind,
The yellowhammer loves to find.
The horse will set his foot and bite
Close to the ground lark's guarded nest
And snort to meet the prickly sight;
He fans the feathers of her breast--
Yet thistles prick so deep that he
Turns back and leaves her dwelling free.
Its prickly knobs the dews of morn
Doth bead with dressing rich to see,
When threads doth hang from thorn to thorn
Like the small spinner's tapestry;
And from the flowers a sultry smell
Comes that agrees with summer well.
The bee will make its bloom a bed,
The humble bee in tawny brown;
And one in jacket fringed with red
Will rest upon its velvet down
When overtaken in the rain,
And wait till sunshine comes again.
And there are times when travel goes
Along the sheep tracks' beaten ways,
Then pleasure many a praise bestows
Upon its blossoms' pointed rays,
When other things are parched beside
And hot day leaves it in its pride.
Scheme | ABABCC DBXBBB AEAEXD FGFGEE HFHFGG IFIFJJ KFKFLL MLMLNN OAOAXX PQPQRR |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Etheree (28%) Tetractys (20%) |
Metre | 1011101 111101010 01110101 0101101010 1011011101 01110101 11110111 110010101110 1001010111 11110111110 111111010 11010001010 011101 01010101 1101011 11011001 10111101 11010111 01101 11110101 10110101 1101111 01111101 10110101 01011111 01011111 10111101 0111101 01010111 11011101 01110101 11010111 11010101 01111101 11011101 01111 01111101 11011101 01110101 11010101 11011111 11010101 11010111 11110111 11111111 10110100 010100101 11011101 01111101 01010101 01010111 11011101 1100001 0111101 01111101 01011101 110100101 01110101 11011101 01111011 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 2,178 |
Words | 399 |
Sentences | 11 |
Stanzas | 10 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 60 |
Letters per line (avg) | 30 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 179 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 40 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 2:00 min read
- 75 Views
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"Spear Thistle" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/22283/spear-thistle>.
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