Analysis of A Wasted Illness
Thomas Hardy 1840 (Stinsford) – 1928 (Dorchester, Dorset)
Through vaults of pain,
Enribbed and wrought with groins of ghastliness,
I passed, and garish spectres moved my brain
To dire distress.
And hammerings,
And quakes, and shoots, and stifling hotness, blent
With webby waxing things and waning things
As on I went.
"Where lies the end
To this foul way?" I asked with weakening breath.
Thereon ahead I saw a door extend -
The door to death.
It loomed more clear:
"At last!" I cried. "The all-delivering door!"
And then, I knew not how, it grew less near
Than theretofore.
And back slid I
Along the galleries by which I came,
And tediously the day returned, and sky,
And life--the same.
And all was well:
Old circumstance resumed its former show,
And on my head the dews of comfort fell
As ere my woe.
I roam anew,
Scarce conscious of my late distress . . . And yet
Those backward steps through pain I cannot view
Without regret.
For that dire train
Of waxing shapes and waning, passed before,
And those grim aisles, must be traversed again
To reach that door.
Scheme | ABAX BCXC CDCD EFEE GHGH IJIJ KCKC AFXF |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (88%) |
Metre | 1111 101111100 110101111 1101 01 010101011 111010101 1111 1101 11111111001 0101110101 0111 1111 11110101001 0111111111 11 0111 0101001111 01000010101 0101 0111 110011101 0111011101 1111 1101 1101110101 1101111101 0101 1111 1101010101 0111111001 1111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,057 |
Words | 184 |
Sentences | 17 |
Stanzas | 8 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 32 |
Letters per line (avg) | 24 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 97 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 23 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 54 sec read
- 109 Views
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