Analysis of The Phantom Horsewoman.
Thomas Hardy 1840 (Stinsford) – 1928 (Dorchester, Dorset)
Queer are the ways of a man I know:
He comes and stands
In a careworn craze,
And looks at the sands
And in the seaward haze
With moveless hands
And face and gaze,
Then turns to go...
And what does he see when he gazes so?
They say he sees as an instant thing
More clear than today,
A sweet soft scene
That once was in play
By that briny green;
Yes, notes alway
Warm, real, and keen,
What his back years bring-
A phantom of his own figuring.
Of this vision of his they might say more:
Not only there
Does he see this sight,
But everywhere
In his brain-day, night,
As if on the air
It were drawn rose bright-
Yea, far from that shore
Does he carry this vision of heretofore:
A ghost-girl-rider. And though, toil-tried,
He withers daily,
Time touches her not,
But she still rides gaily
In his rapt thought
On that shagged and shaly
Atlantic spot,
And as when first eyed
Draws rein and sings to the swing of the tide.
Scheme | ABCBCBCAA DEFEFXFDD GHIHIHIGG JKLKXKLJJ |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 110110111 1101 0011 01101 000101 111 0101 1111 0111111101 111111101 11101 0111 11101 1111 111 1101 11111 010111100 1110111111 1101 11111 110 01111 11101 10111 11111 1110110101 011100111 11010 11001 111110 0111 11101 0101 01111 1101101101 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 886 |
Words | 180 |
Sentences | 6 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 9, 9, 9, 9 |
Lines Amount | 36 |
Letters per line (avg) | 20 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 176 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 45 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 54 sec read
- 128 Views
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"The Phantom Horsewoman." Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/36541/the-phantom-horsewoman.>.
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