Analysis of The Bedridden Peasant to an Unknown God
Thomas Hardy 1840 (Stinsford) – 1928 (Dorchester, Dorset)
Much wonder I--here long low-laid -
That this dead wall should be
Betwixt the Maker and the made,
Between Thyself and me!
For, say one puts a child to nurse,
He eyes it now and then
To know if better 'tis, or worse,
And if it mourn, and when.
But Thou, Lord, giv'st us men our clay
In helpless bondage thus
To Time and Chance, and seem'st straightway
To think no more of us!
That some disaster cleft Thy scheme
And tore us wide apart,
So that no cry can cross, I deem;
For Thou art mild of heart,
And would'st not shape and shut us in
Where voice can not he heard:
'Tis plain Thou meant'st that we should win
Thy succour by a word.
Might but Thy sense flash down the skies
Like man's from clime to clime,
Thou would'st not let me agonize
Through my remaining time;
But, seeing how much Thy creatures bear -
Lame, starved, or maimed, or blind -
Thou'dst heal the ills with quickest care
Of me and all my kind.
Then, since Thou mak'st not these things be,
But these things dost not know,
I'll praise Thee as were shown to me
The mercies Thou would'st show!
Scheme | ABAB CDCD XEXE FGFG HIHI JFJX KLKL BMBM |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain |
Metre | 11011111 111111 01010001 01101 11110111 111101 11110111 011101 111111101 010101 11010111 111111 11010111 011101 11111111 111111 011110110 111111 111111111 11101 11111101 111111 11111110 110101 110111101 111111 11011101 110111 111111111 111111 11110111 0101111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,110 |
Words | 207 |
Sentences | 7 |
Stanzas | 8 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 32 |
Letters per line (avg) | 25 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 100 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 26 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:05 min read
- 156 Views
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