Analysis of Amabel

Thomas Hardy 1840 (Stinsford) – 1928 (Dorchester, Dorset)



I MARKED her ruined hues,
     Her custom-straitened views,
     And asked, "Can there indwell
        My Amabel?"

I looked upon her gown,
     Once rose, now earthen brown;
     The change was like the knell
        Of Amabel.

Her step's mechanic ways
     Had lost the life of May's;
     Her laugh, once sweet in swell,
        Spoilt Amabel.

I mused: "Who sings the strain
     I sang ere warmth did wane?
     Who thinks its numbers spell
        His Amabel?"--

Knowing that, though Love cease,
     Love's race shows undecrease;
     All find in dorp or dell
        An Amabel.

--I felt that I could creep
     To some housetop, and weep,
     That Time the tyrant fell
        Ruled Amabel!

I said (the while I sighed
     That love like ours had died),
     "Fond things I'll no more tell
        To Amabel,

"But leave her to her fate,
     And fling across the gate,
     'Till the Last Trump, farewell,
        O Amabel!'"


Scheme AABB CCBB DDBB EEBB XABB FFBB GGBB HHBB
Poetic Form Quatrain 
Metre 110101 01011 01111 110 110101 111101 011101 110 010101 110111 011101 110 111101 111111 111101 110 101111 1111 110111 110 111111 11101 110101 110 110111 1111011 111111 110 110101 010101 10111 110
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 944
Words 148
Sentences 9
Stanzas 8
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 32
Letters per line (avg) 19
Words per line (avg) 4
Letters per stanza (avg) 75
Words per stanza (avg) 18
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

45 sec read
144

Thomas Hardy

Thomas Hardy, was not a Scottish Minister, not a Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland nor a Professor of Eccesiastical History at Edinburgh University. more…

All Thomas Hardy poems | Thomas Hardy Books

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