“The Poplar Field” Summary

“The Poplar Field” Themes

• 

  Time, Change, and Mortality

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• 

  Humanity vs. Nature

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• 

  Aging, Loss, and Grief

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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “The Poplar Field”

• Lines 1-2

  The Poplars are fell’d, farewell to the shade
  And the whispering sound of the cool colonnade,

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 3-4

  The winds play no longer and sing in the leaves,
  Nor Ouse on his bosom their image receives.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 5-8

  Twelve years have elapsed since I last took a view
  Of my favourite field and the bank where they grew,
  And now in the grass behold they are laid,
  And the tree is my seat that once lent me a shade.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 9-12

  The black-bird has fled to another retreat
  Where the hazels afford him a screen from the heat,
  And the scene where his melody charm’d me before,
  Resounds with his sweet-flowing ditty no more.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 13-16

  My fugitive years are all hasting away,
  And I must e’er long lie as lowly as they,
  With a turf on my breast and a stone at my head
  E’er another such grove shall arise in its stead.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 17-18

  ’Tis a sight to engage me if any thing can
  To muse on the perishing pleasures of Man;

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 19-20

  Though his life be a dream, his enjoyments, I see,
  Have a Being less durable even than he.

  

  

  

  

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“The Poplar Field” Symbols

• 

  The Blackbird

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“The Poplar Field” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Alliteration

  

  

  

  

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• Consonance

  

  

  

  

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• Assonance

  

  

  

  

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• Sibilance

  

  

  

  

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• Caesura

  

  

  

  

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• Metaphor

  

  

  

  

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“The Poplar Field” Vocabulary

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• Poplars
• Fell'd
• Colonnade
• Ouse
• Bosom
• Elapsed
• Bank
• Hazels
• Screen
• Resounds
• Ditty
• Fugitive
• Hasting
• E'er
• Turf
• Stone
• Grove
• Stead
• Muse
• Perishing

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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “The Poplar Field”

• Form

• Meter

• Rhyme Scheme

“The Poplar Field” Speaker

“The Poplar Field” Setting

Literary and Historical Context of “The Poplar Field”

More “The Poplar Field” Resources

• External Resources

  • Cowper's Life and Work — A short biography, plus several of Cowper's famous poems.

  • The Poem Out Loud — Listen to a reading of "The Poplar Field" and see footage of the English landscape that inspired the poem.

  • All About William Cowper — An interactive page from the Cowper & Newton Museum.

  • What Is Romanticism? — A brief overview of Romanticism, the major literary movement that Cowper helped inspire. 

  • Poplar Trees — Learn more about the trees that have been "fell'd" in Cowper's poem.