Analysis of The Lout

John Clare 1793 (Helpston) – 1864 (St Andrew's Hospital)



For Sunday's play he never makes excuse,
But plays at taw, and buys his Spanish juice.
Hard as his toil, and ever slow to speak,
Yet he gives maidens many a burning cheek;
For none can pass him but his witless grace
Of bawdry brings the blushes in her face.
As vulgar as the dirt he treads upon
He calls his cows or drives his horses on;
He knows the lamest cow and strokes her side
And often tries to mount her back and ride,
And takes her tail at night in idle play,
And makes her drag him homeward all the way.
He knows of nothing but the football match,
And where hens lay, and when the duck will hatch.


Scheme AABBCCDDEEFFGG
Poetic Form
Metre 111110101 1111011101 1111010111 11110100101 1111111101 111010001 1101011101 1111111101 110110101 0101110101 0101110101 0101110101 111101011 0111010111
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 602
Words 123
Sentences 5
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 14
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 34
Words per line (avg) 9
Letters per stanza (avg) 472
Words per stanza (avg) 121
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

37 sec read
93

John Clare

John Clare was an English poet in his time he was commonly known as the Northamptonshire Peasant Poet more…

All John Clare poems | John Clare Books

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