Analysis of In Tenebris

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



Wintertime nighs;
But my bereavement-pain
It cannot bring again:
Twice no one dies.

Flower-petals flee;
But since it once hath been,
No more that severing scene
Can harrow me.

Birds faint in dread:
I shall not lose old strength
In the lone frost's black length:
Strength long since fled!

Leaves freeze to dun;
But friends cannot turn cold
This season as of old
For him with none.

Tempests may scath;
But love cannot make smart
Again this year his heart
Who no heart hath.

Black is night's cope;
But death will not appal
One, who past doubtings all,
Waits in unhope.


Scheme AXXA BXXB CDDC EFFE DGGX HBXH
Poetic Form Quatrain  (67%)
Metre 101 110101 110101 1111 10101 111111 1111001 1101 1101 111111 001111 1111 1111 111011 110111 1111 111 111011 011111 1111 1111 11111 11111 101
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 550
Words 103
Sentences 7
Stanzas 6
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 24
Letters per line (avg) 19
Words per line (avg) 4
Letters per stanza (avg) 74
Words per stanza (avg) 17
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 22, 2023

31 sec read
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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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