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Kelly Philpott
Cosmin Ritivoiu
English 102
25 February 2015
Silver
Walter de La Mare, a prolific writer of modern literature, wrote many poems and short
stories during his lifetime (1873-1956). Many consider his works to be exemplary of romantic
imagination (poetry foundation). During the modern era, in the late 1850s, realistic art came to
the forefront as a preferred method of painting. Realism is defined as a style of painting and
sculpture that seeks to represent the familiar or typical in real life, rather than an idealized, formalized, or romantic interpretation of it (realism). One artist explained his realistic way of
thinking as follows: I have never seen either angels or goddesses, so I am not interested in
painting them (Chappine). In other words, the artists wanted to paint only those things which
they had seen or experienced themselves because that is what was familiar or typical for them.
Although Walter de La Mare was not an artist himself, the ideologies of the modern era have
possibly played a role in shaping his writing style in the poem Silver.
In the poem Silver, Walter de La Mare uses personification, giving human characteristics to the moon. The poem depicts the moon walking stealthily about looking on the earth below. Each thing that the moon sees as she is walking about is at least partly silver if not completely silver. The rhythm of the poem is smooth, compared to others, because it flows gently
from one idea to the next without the phrases becoming short and choppy. The meter gets longer
towards the end of the poem, yet it is hardly noticeable to the reader as it still maintains a smooth

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flow. At the beginning of the poem, the mood is slightly eerie as the moon walks stealthily about,
yet as the reader reads on, one finds a sense of peacefulness about the poem, because the setting
is at night and all of the animals (with the exception of the mouse) are very peaceful and at rest.
At first glance, one may see this poem as simple, easy to understand and perhaps see it as slightly
childish. However, upon careful thought, the author may be trying to subtly convey several different ideas throughout this poem. In Emily Valentines article, she suggests four ways of looking
at this poem. Several of these have been discussed below.
One of these is the fact that in this poem there is quite a bit of repetition, especially with
the usage of the word silver. By definition, silver can mean the actual element of silver or just the
shiny grayish-white color or something that looks like silver. At this point, one may ask what the
poet means by silver. This could be looked at and argued from several different viewpoints,
however, this paper will touch on one possibility. In the very beginning of the poem, Walter de
La Mare depicts the moon as follows: Slowly, silently, now the moon/Walks the night in her
silver shoon; Shoon, by definition, is the same thing as shoes. Therefore, the moon in this poem
is walking about in silver shoes. As the moon looks down on the earth, everything below her is
silver. In this part of Walter de La Mares poem he subtly portrays the moon as leaving her footprints on everything she comes in contact with. Silver in the past has been used as money, and
money can influence people greatly. Many people believe that the moon influences things such
as tides and peoples fortunes. Walter de La Mare may have thought this way about the moon and
these ideologies may be subtly coming forward in his poem.
The next issue that Emily Valentine discusses in her article is regarding the perception of
the moon herself. The question is asked as to whether the moon is misperceiving the earth be-

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neath her or not. It is common knowledge that harvest mice do not have claws and eyes made out
of silver, and reeds by rivers are not silver either. Therefore, a question is raised as to the way the
moon is viewing things. Perhaps the moon in actuality not perceiving the earth correctly. During
the day fruit is not silver, but colorful and thatch is yellow instead of silver, therefore, perception
must not be reliable when looking for the truth of a matter. Maybe everything is really silver and
the sunshine makes people misperceive the world they live in.
Another way to look at this poem is from the viewpoint of the moon herself. In this
poem, Walter de La Mare may be trying to represent the viewpoint of the moon more than anything else. In the poem everything that the moon sees on the earth is silver. Perhaps the moon
does not realize that she is the one causing her perception of the earth to be one full of silver objects. Perhaps she does not understand that her beams of light are the cause of the abundance of
silver objects upon the earth beneath her.
On the other hand, the moon may realize that her light is being reflected upon the objects
of the earth, but be so enchanted with herself that she does not even have an interest in seeing the
creatures of the earth, but merely desires to see her reflection in those objects. This thought leads
to the possibility that the author is going towards the idea that we only see what we want to see
(Valentine). Or in other words, the moon in this case sees her reflection because that is what she
is paying attention to and that is what she wants to see. The ideology of realism in Walter de La
Mares day is portrayed when looking at the poem from this viewpoint because the moon chooses not to see the objects themselves, but pays attention to the fact that they are silver.
Perhaps the silver reflection of the moon is an allusion to the way Walter de La Mare sees
himself and his creative work in the world that surrounds him. As the moon passes over the

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landscape, the author is focusing on how the silvery beams from the moon has brightened a dark
world below. It very well may be that he is comparing his writing to the moonlight in the poem
that lightened up the world in hopes that his works might have that same influence upon the
world in future generations.

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Works Cited

Chappine, Patricia. "Science, Art, Religion & Philosophy in the Mid to Late 1800s & Early
1900s." Education-portal. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Mar. 2015.
"realism." Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition. HarperCollins
Publishers. 02 Mar. 2015.
Valentine, Emily. "What Is the Theme of the Poem "Silver"? | The Classroom | Synonym." The
Classroom. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Mar. 2015
"Walter De La Mare." Poetry Foundation. Poetry Foundation, n.d. Web. 02 Mar. 2015.