Analysis of Thought Of Ph---a At News Of Her Death
Thomas Hardy 1840 (Stinsford) – 1928 (Dorchester, Dorset)
NOT a line of her writing have I,
Not a thread of her hair,
No mark of her late time as dame in her dwelling, whereby
I may picture her there;
And in vain do I urge my unsight
To conceive my lost prize
At her close, whom I knew when her dreams were upbrimming with light,
And with laughter her eyes.
What scenes spread around her last days,
Sad, shining, or dim?
Did her gifts and compassions enray and enarch her sweet ways
With an aureate nimb?
Or did life-light decline from her years,
And mischances control
Her full day-star; unease, or regret, or forebodings, or fears
Disennoble her soul?
Thus I do but the phantom retain
Of the maiden of yore
As my relic; yet haply the best of her--fined in my brain
It may be the more
That no line of her writing have I,
Nor a thread of her hair,
No mark of her late time as dame in her dwelling, whereby
I may picture her there.
Scheme | abABcdcd efefghgh ijijabAB |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 101101011 101101 11101111001001 111001 00111111 101111 1011111010111 011001 11101011 11011 10101101011 1111 111101101 0101 0111011011111 101 111101001 101011 11101101101011 11101 111101011 101101 11101111001001 111001 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,023 |
Words | 173 |
Sentences | 6 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 24 |
Letters per line (avg) | 28 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 225 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 57 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 51 sec read
- 134 Views
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