Analysis of A King's Soliloquy [On the Night of His Funeral]
Thomas Hardy 1840 (Stinsford) – 1928 (Dorchester, Dorset)
From the slow march and muffled drum,
And crowds distrest,
And book and bell, at length I have come
To my full rest.
A ten years' rule beneath the sun
Is wound up here,
And what I have done, what left undone,
Figures out clear.
Yet in the estimate of such
It grieves me more
That I by some was loved so much
Than that I bore,
From others, judgment of that hue
Which over-hope
Breeds from a theoretic view
Of regal scope.
For kingly opportunities
Right many have sighed;
How best to bear its devilries
Those learn who have tried!
I have eaten the fat and drunk the sweet,
Lived the life out
From the first greeting glad drum-beat
To the last shout.
What pleasure earth affords to kings
I have enjoyed
Through its long vivid pulse-stirrings
Even till it cloyed.
What days of strain, what nights of stress
Can cark a throne,
Even one maintained in peacefulness,
I too have known.
And so, I think, could I step back
To life again,
I should prefer the average track
Of average men,
Since, as with them, what kingship would
It cannot do,
Nor to first thoughts however good
Hold itself true.
Something binds hard the royal hand,
As all that be,
And it is That has shaped, has planned
My acts and me.
Scheme | ABAB CXCX DEDE FGFG HBHB BBBB IBIB XJXJ KLKL BBBF BMBM |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (91%) |
Metre | 10110101 011 010111111 1111 01110101 1111 011111101 1011 10010011 1111 11111111 1111 11010111 1101 11011 1101 1100100 11011 111111 11111 1110010101 1011 10110111 1011 11010111 1101 11110110 10111 11111111 1101 101010100 1111 01111111 1101 110101001 11001 11111101 1101 1111101 1011 10110101 1111 01111111 1101 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 1,157 |
Words | 226 |
Sentences | 10 |
Stanzas | 11 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 44 |
Letters per line (avg) | 21 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 85 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 20 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:07 min read
- 111 Views
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"A King's Soliloquy [On the Night of His Funeral]" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 6 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/36306/a-king%27s-soliloquy-%5Bon-the-night-of-his-funeral%5D>.
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