LET’S

CREATE
JINGLE
SHORT POEM
DESCRIPTIVE
PARAGRAPH
 SILVER
Silver’ by Walter de la Mare is a poem
composed of seven rhyming couplets, in
which the moon is personified as a lady
describes the impact that the silver light of
the moon has on everyday objects and
creatures existing within the darkened night.
 SILVER
Walter de la Mare’s classic poem, “Silver,”
plays out in the form of an American sonnet
(Innovative sonnet), composed of seven
riming couplets, in which the moon is
personified as a lady out walking in silver
slippers that shine upon the landscape causing
everything visible to don a silver glow.
First Couplet: The Moon Informs the Night

Slowly, silently, now the moon

Walks the night in her silver shoon;
The speaker begins by setting the scene of the moon slowly moving in silence upon the
landscape. That moon is transforming the land in ways that one might not expect.
In sunlight, the creatures of earth have come to expect the ability to see all things in a certain
way, but in moonlight all is changed—all is so very delightfully different. Instead of merely
revealing the consciousness of daylight experience of earthly creatures, the moon reveals a
whole different scenario.
The speaker portrays that difference by alerting the poem's audience that the moon is
"walk[ing] the night," wearing "silver shoon." The British dialect that uses "shoon" for "shoes"
effects a useful rhyme with "moon."
Personified as a lady, the silver slippered moon is walking the landscape "slowly" but also
"silently." Night time is a time for reflection, contemplation, and meditation.
Second Couplet: The Moon Walking and Observing

This way, and that, she peers, and sees

Silver fruit upon silver trees;

The moonlight permeates the landscape during her walk. This metaphoric moon
lady "peers and sees." Anyone walking the silver-sprayed landscape at night
might encounter certain objects being bathed and transformed by moonlight.
This moon sees trees with fruit. The metaphor of the moon as a person walking
the landscape enlarges the vision for the reader/listener who, no doubt, has
encountered such an experience.
Who has not walked at night and observed the beauty of the transformed
landscape from sunlight to moonlight? Colors are gone, fine definitions are gone,
but what is left is a new experience of beauty that entices the observer with new,
fascinating perceptions.
Third Couplet: All Bathed in Silver

One by one the casements catch

Her beams beneath the silvery thatch;

The speaker then observes that the whole vantage point of his capability
is bathed in silver. The windows of every cottage he has privilege to view
are also bathed in that marvellous silver. The thatched roofs are flowing
with silver. Everything is swimming in this mercurial silver. But far from
poisoning anything as the actual metal will do, this silver enlivens and
enhances the beauty of the night time landscape. It merely proclaims that
everything God has created is beautiful, if one can only open one’s eyes
to see that beauty.
Fourth Couplet: Happy, Silvered Dogs

Couched in his kennel, like a log,

With paws of silver sleeps the dog;

• Human beings love their dogs—man’s best friend! So much so that most
Americans will not likely identify with "couched in a kennel," because it is more
likely that their dogs will be couched in their indoor beds not far from the beds of
their human companions. et, earlier history had people keeping their dogs outside
in the dog houses or "kennels."
• Therefore, the speaker has observed that in their doghouses, these dogs are all
silvered as they sleep "like a log." Happy silvered dogs, sleep peacefully outside
in full view of any observer who might be taking a walk in the moonlight.
Fifth Couplet: Silvery Sleep

From their shadowy cote the white breasts peep

Of doves in a silver-feathered sleep;

Nature offers many scenes for observation. The speaker then

notes that even the doves can be seen in the silver of the
moonlight. The breasts of the doves are "peep[ing] out from their
shadowy cote."
And like all the creatures of nature heretofore portrayed, the
doves send forth the majestic beauty of the moon’s silver.
Sixth Couplet: Equal Opportunity in Silver

A harvest mouse goes scampering by,

With silver claws, and silver eye;

The speaker does not fail to note that even rodents are captured by the
silvering of the moon. The speaker then describes a harvest mouse.
The mouse goes "scampering by." And of course, this harvest mouse,
this rodent, possesses "silver claws, and silver eye."
The silvering of the moon offers equal opportunity: no one is left out,
no one escapes it. Silver become the only descriptor of things as they
parade through the moonlight.
Seventh Couplet: The Silvering of Fish in a Silver Stream

And moveless fish in the water gleam,

By silver reeds in a silver stream.

• Having lived with fish in bodies of water in

rivers, creeks, and lakes, I can attest to the
silvering of fish in streams in moonlight. They do,
in fact, "gleam" with the silver of the moonlight.
 CONCLUTION
• The speaker has marvellously captured the wonderful silvering of
things as they appear in the night time blessed with moon light
upon them.2

• As the moon has walked the night, she has invited those who
have also observed such a scene to remember not the absence of
golden light, but the intense presence of silver.
POEM ANALYSIS
• Silver’ by Walter de la Mare is a fourteen-line sonnet that follows a rhyming pattern of
aabbccddeeffgg. 
• De la Mare has chosen to repeat (Repetition is an important poetic technique that sees writers
reuse words, phrases, images, or structures multiple times within a poem.)  the word “silver”
a total of eight times.’ at least once within each rhyming couplet.(A couplet is a literary
device that is made up of two rhyming lines of verse. These fall in succession, or one after
another.)  There are also moments of internal rhyme  (Internal rhyme occurs in the middle of
lines of poetry. It refers to words that rhyme in the middle of the same line or across multiple
lines)and half rhyme. (It refers to two words that rhyme in part, but not perfectly.)This can be
seen most prominently in the first four lines with the use of the words “Slowly” and
“silently” as well as “peers” and “sees.” There is a very prominent rhythm to the first four
lines as well.