Analysis of Beeny Cliff

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



I
O the opal and the sapphire of that wandering western sea,
And the woman riding high above with bright hair flapping free-
The woman whom I loved so, and who loyally loved me.

I I
The pale mews plained below us, and the waves seemed far away
In a nether sky, engrossed in saying their ceaseless babbling say,
As we laughed light-heartedly aloft on that clear-sunned March day.

III
A little cloud then cloaked us, and there flew an irised rain,
And the Atlantic dyed its levels with a dull misfeatured stain,
And then the sun burst out again, and purples prinked the main.

IV
-Still in all its chasmal beauty bulks old Beeny to the sky,
And shall she and I not go there once again now March is nigh,
And the sweet things said in that March say anew there by and by?

V
What if still in chasmal beauty looms that wild weird western shore,
The woman now is-elsewhere-whom the ambling pony bore,
And nor knows nor cares for Beeny, and will laugh there nevermore.


Scheme ABBB ACCC ADDD XAAA BEEE
Poetic Form Quatrain  (20%)
Metre 1 10100010011100101 001010101111101 01011110110011 11 01110110011101 00101010101101001 111110001111111 1 0101111011111 00010111010111 01011101010101 1 1011110111101 011011111011111 001110111011101 1 11101101111101 0101111010011 0111111011110
Closest metre Iambic hexameter
Characters 957
Words 181
Sentences 6
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 20
Letters per line (avg) 38
Words per line (avg) 9
Letters per stanza (avg) 151
Words per stanza (avg) 36
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 22, 2023

54 sec read
200

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…

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