✦ A Classic Poem ✦

Silver

A poem by Walter de la Mare, from Peacock Pie, 1913

Slowly, silently, the moon walks the night in her silver shoes, and everything she touches turns to silver: the fruit, the thatch, the sleeping dog, the doves, the fish in the stream.

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Read aloud by Storyland Classics ✦ 1 min 34 sec ✦ Watch on YouTube

✦ The Poem ✦

Silver

by Walter de la Mare, from Peacock Pie (1913). Public domain in the United States.

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 a 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.

✦ About the Poem ✦

A World Turned Silver

Walter de la Mare (1873–1956) was an English poet famous for quiet, dreamlike poems full of moonlight, mystery, and small sounds in the night. Peacock Pie, his 1913 book of rhymes for children, has never gone out of print.

“Shoon” is an old word for shoes, “casements” are windows, and a “cote” is a little house for doves. Count how many times the word “silver” appears: it is repeated so often that the whole poem seems to glow. Read it slowly and quietly, the way the moon moves.

✦ Talk About It ✦

Questions to Share

What does the moon wear on her feet?
How many silver things can you find in the poem?
Look out the window on a moonlit night. What turns silver?

✦ Keep Reading ✦

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All Poems

Browse every poem in the Storyland Classics library.