Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


THE LOST SHOE by WALTER JOHN DE LA MARE

Poet Analysis

First Line: POOR LITTLE LUCY
Last Line: FOR HER LOST SHOE.
Subject(s): SHOES; BOOTS; SNEAKERS; SHOEMAKERS;

Poor little Lucy
By some mischance,
Lost her shoe
As she did dance:
'Twas not on the stairs,
Not in the hall;
Not where they sat
At supper at all.
She looked in the garden,
But there it was not;
Henhouse, or kennel,
Or high dovecote.
Dairy and meadow,
And wild woods through
Showed not a trace
Of Lucy's shoe.
Bird nor bunny
Nor glimmering moon
Breathed a whisper
Of where 'twas gone.
It was cried and cried,
@3Oyez@1 and @3Oyez@1!
In French, Dutch, Latin
And Portuguese.
Ships the dark seas
Went plunging through,
But none brought news
Of Lucy's shoe;
And still she patters,
In silk and leather,
Snow, sand, shingle,
In every weather;
Spain, and Africa,
Hindustan,
Java, China,
And lamped Japan,
Plain and desert,
She hops -- hops through,
Pernambuco
To gold Peru;
Mountain and forest,
And river too,
All the world over
For her lost shoe.



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