The Tailor
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 'neath the sill. Sometimes he stays, and o'er 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 crosslegs 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 Will mutter half a seam away.
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"Few footsteps stray when dusk droops o'er..."
"The Tailor" is a quintessential example of Walter De La Mare's signature style... ### Why We Love This Line At Linespedia, we believe that poetry is the ultimate sanctuary for the soul...