Silver by Walter de la Mare

Slowly, silently, now the moon

Walks the night in her silver shoon;

This way, and that, she peers, and sees

Silver fruit upon silver trees;

One by one the casements catch

Her beams beneath the silvery thatch;

Couched in his kennel, like a log,

With paws of silver sleeps the dog;

From their shadowy cote the white breasts peep

Of doves in silver feathered sleep

A harvest mouse goes scampering by,

With silver claws, and silver eye;

And moveless fish in the water gleam,

By silver reeds in a silver stream.

British poet Walter de la Mare captures a night scene in his sonnet poem. The first couplet sets the scene by letting the reader know that the time is nightime. The moon’s effect is dramatized with a personification claiming that the “moon / Walks the night.” Instead of shining, the moon is walking in silver slippers—the glow of those silver 'shoons' adds the silver color to everything it touches. As well, the poet uses various poetic devices, for example, he dramatizes the sleeping dog, by using a simile which reads, “[c]ouched in his kennel, like a log.” The things I enjoyed most was the repetition of the word silver, because the sound associated with the letter ‘s’ is one that is smooth. This poem to me feels as if everything is turning into silver softly and suttley, like a paint brushe moving over a canvas slowly and smoothly.