Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE TAILOR, by WALTER JOHN DE LA MARE



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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE TAILOR, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Few footsteps stray when dusk droops o'er
Last Line: He'll mutter half a seam away.
Alternate Author Name(s): Ramal, Walter; De La Mare, Walter
Subject(s): Tailors; Dress Makers


Few footsteps stray when dusk droops o'er
The tailor's old stone-lintelled door.
There sits he, stitching, half asleep,
Beside his smoky tallow dip.
'Click, click,' his needle hastes, and shrill
Cries back the cricket beneath the sill.
Sometimes he stays, and over his thread
Leans sidelong his old tousled head;
Or stoops to peer with half-shut eye
When some strange footfall echoes by;
Till clearer gleams his candle's spark
Into the dusty summer dark.
Then from his cross legs he gets down,
To find how dark the evening's grown;
And hunched up in his door he'll hear
The cricket whistling crisp and clear;
And so beneath the starry grey
He'll mutter half a seam away.





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