  The polaron features of the one-dimensional Holstein Molecular Crystal Model
are investigated by improving a variational method introduced recently and
based on a linear superposition of Bloch states that describe large and small
polaron wave functions. The mean number of phonons, the polaron kinetic energy,
the electron-phonon local correlation function, and the ground state spectral
weight are calculated and discussed. A crossover regime between large and small
polaron for any value of the adiabatic parameter $\omega_0/t$ is found and a
polaron phase diagram is proposed.
