Analysis of The Cool Web, by Robert Graves

The Cool Web Children are dumb to say how hot the day is, How hot the scent is of the summer rose, How dreadful the black wastes of the evening sky, How dreadful the tall soldiers drumming by. But we have speech, to chill the angry day, And speech, to dull the rose's cruel scent. We spell away the overhanging night, We spell away the soldiers and the fright. There's a cool web of language …

…The last stanza has a rhyme of A B C D C D and this difference in structure alerts the reader and demands additional attention. This warning is welcome as the message in the last stanza is far more direct than previously where metaphor and allusion are used. The last line states unequivocally "we shall go mad no doubt." It is in this last stanza that Graves delivers his judgement on our use of language.