I See the Boys of Summer

Each stanza in “I see the boys of summer” is six lines long, a sestet, and each sestet follows the same syllabic pattern: eleven, seven, ten, eight, eight, ten. The back and forth between longer syllabled sentences with shorter ones creates an ebb and flow rhythm, and the sustained syllabic pattern creates unity across the stanzas. Structurally, no one stanza deviates from the others, allowing the rhythm to remain relatively consistent. Most lines follow iambic pentameter, beginning with unstressed syllables, but some of the shorter lines are trochaic, or starting with stressed syllables. The second lines of each stanza, in particular, tend to be trochaic. For example, in the fifth stanza (26):

In-to I a I chim-ing I quart-er

Punctuation differs throughout the stanzas, too, creating pauses, or caesuras. The third lines of the fifth and sixth stanzas, for example, while the same syllables, are punctuated differently: “Where, punctual as death, we ring the stars;” (27) and “A muscling life from lovers in their cramp” (33). Line 27 has two commas and a semicolon, whereas Line 33 has no punctuation at all. Thomas stays in his established pattern, but crafts unique lines within that pattern to change the momentum throughout the poem.