Analysis of Genoa and the Mediterranean.

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



O epic-famed, god-haunted Central Sea,
  Heave careless of the deep wrong done to thee
When from Torino's track I saw thy face first flash on me.

And multimarbled Genova the Proud,
  Gleam all unconscious how, wide-lipped, up-browed,
I first beheld thee clad--not as the Beauty but the Dowd.

Out from a deep-delved way my vision lit
  On housebacks pink, green, ochreous--where a slit
Shoreward 'twixt row and row revealed the classic blue through it.

And thereacross waved fishwives' high-hung smocks,
  Chrome kerchiefs, scarlet hose, darned underfrocks;
Since when too oft my dreams of thee, O Queen, that frippery mocks:

Whereat I grieve, Superba! . . . Afterhours
  Within Palazzo Doria's orange bowers
Went far to mend these marrings of thy soul-subliming powers.

But, Queen, such squalid undress none should see,
  Those dream-endangering eyewounds no more be
Where lovers first behold thy form in pilgrimage to thee.


Scheme AAA BBB CCC AAX DDD AAA
Poetic Form
Metre 1101110101 1101011111 111111111111 0110001 111011111 1111111010101 1101111101 11111101 10110101010111 0111111 11010111 1111111111111 1111100 0101011010 111111111110 1111001111 1101001111 11010111010011
Closest metre Iambic hexameter
Characters 942
Words 145
Sentences 10
Stanzas 6
Stanza Lengths 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3
Lines Amount 18
Letters per line (avg) 40
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 121
Words per stanza (avg) 24
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

44 sec read
86

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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