“The scarecrow” by Walter De La Mare

I remember reading this poem “The scarecrow” by Walter De La Mare back in school.

Analysis of “The scarecrow” by Walter De La Mare

This poem presents an extended metaphor. The scarecrow, an otherwise lifeless object is personified to show the resilience and perseverance during the harsh winter. The winter’s bleakness gives way to spring which promises renewal. The spring rejuvenates everything. The winter’s desolation goes away and there is this certain aura of birth, rebirth and happiness.

The scarecrow amidst all this stands as the silent guardian, stoically enduring everything hoping for a new life. A life where he is happy. The spring transforms the scarecrow from a snow-covered figure in winters to a watchful sentinel. This transformation shows the cyclical nature of seasons and the indomitable spirit that triumphs and tower above everything else.

This piece is rather straightforward for Walter’s style and as compared to his other works this poem is very simple and direct. Using the sensory experiences of the scarecrow and his views about nature and his surroundings, the poem wonderfully captures the rural agricultural lifestyle where everything relies on the seasonal cycle for sustenance.

Personal Experience After Reading “The Scarecrow”

The poem captures the pain, the loneliness of a scarecrow. He who serves his master, his man but is never acknowledged. He has acres of land to call his home but no person to call his own. He stands there alone in that vastness, fighting seasons, guarding the empty as well as “a sea of sun begotten grain”.

I must have been in third grade or so and the poem enticed a certain gloom in me. I remember going back to my village that summer and ask my gammy to take me to the wheat fields. At first my demands were ignored completely and everyone refused saying it’s not a place for you, you’ll find snakes and rats there.

Now knowing this, I felt even more compelled to meet the scarecrow and soon my gammy gave in and I was taken to the field tour one day with gampy. I can’t tell you how ecstatic I was to find so many scarecrows together. There was at least one in every field. They all were standing there with their heads hanging from their thin shoulders.

I wanted to go near to them, to feel them, to touch them. The exact reason why I wanted to do that was not clear to me that time but I had remembered my teacher say, “The scarecrow is lonely and sad.” while she was explaining the poem in class.

Now I know. I guess I wanted to touch him to make him feel seen and loved and acknowledged and give that inanimate object a sense of belongingness. In my eyes, he was a living breathing being, with lonely arms and empty heart.

The void in his eyes were like a black hole, attracting me towards it. I remember leaving the field howling and throwing fits, as my gampy carried me home in his arms.

The poem has stayed with me ever since with that familiar ache where I see myself failing to give comfort to someone who needs it.

Idk why, today when I sat to make a post, I felt that same familiar ache return. I looked for it and found it just a click away.

Reading it again, brought back those memories of an innocent child that wanted to give comfort to a scarecrow. Funny enough yeah… But that’s just me!

life love loss

Last modified: September 26, 2024