Lyric Poem · Winter
Mistletoe
by Walter de la Mare · 1913
Full-text availability follows the United States display decision recorded below; status can differ elsewhere.
“Mistletoe” by Walter de la Mare — quilloak.com/poems/mistletoe
Quick facts
- Poem
- Mistletoe
- Poet
- Walter de la Mare
- Published
- 1913
- Length
- 14 lines
- Form
- Lyric Poem, Rhyming Poems, Short Poems
- Themes
- Winter, Dreams & Sleep, Short
Craft notes
How this poem works
Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.
- Shape
- 14 lines · 2 septets
- Line length
- Lines run 7-9 syllables (median 8), consistent with tetrameter. No single length dominates, which is normal once elision and contraction are in play.
- Refrain
- “(Pale-green, fairy mistletoe),”Repeated lines act as the poem's hinge or drumbeat.
Want the rules this form is measured against? Read what makes a lyric poem, or run your own draft through the form checker to see the same measurements on your lines. How we measure · Report a mistake
Text, source & rights
A traceable edition
First published before 1929 and checked line by line against the cited copy. Full-text display is based on a United States term-expiry review; status can differ elsewhere.
- Author record
- Walter de la Mare1873–1956
- Source record
- Project Gutenberg eBook #3753, Peacock Pie: A Book of RhymesMistletoe; Peacock Pie: A Book of Rhymes (London: Constable, 1913)
- Display decision
- Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-11-04
- Publication record
- Peacock Pie: A Book of Rhymes (London: Constable, 1913)
- Text fingerprint
- SHA-256 a02c15381f855d49…
- Editorial handling
- The plain-text dash in the last line (“unseen - and”) is printed as an em dash. No other change.