Analysis of To Outer Nature

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



SHOW thee as I thought thee
     When I early sought thee,
       Omen-scouting,
       All undoubting
     Love alone had wrought thee--

Wrought thee for my pleasure,
     Planned thee as a measure
       For expounding
       And resounding
     Glad things that men treasure.

O for but a moment
     Of that old endowment--
       Light to gaily
       See thy daily
     Irisèd embowment!

But such readorning
     Time forbids with scorning--
       Makes me see things
       Cease to be things
     They were in my morning.

Fad'st thou, glow-forsaken,
     Darkness-overtaken!
       Thy first sweetness,
       Radiance, meetness,
     None shall reawaken.

Why not sempiternal
     Thou and I? Our vernal
       Brightness keeping,
       Time outleaping;
     Passed the hodiernal!


Scheme AABBA CCBBC DDAAD BBEEB FFXEF GGBBG
Poetic Form Tetractys  (43%)
Etheree  (40%)
Metre 111111 111011 1010 11 101111 111110 111010 1010 0010 111110 111010 111010 1110 1110 1011 111 10111 1111 1111 100110 1111010 10100 1110 1001 11010 111 1011010 1010 11 101
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 794
Words 104
Sentences 8
Stanzas 6
Stanza Lengths 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5
Lines Amount 30
Letters per line (avg) 17
Words per line (avg) 3
Letters per stanza (avg) 86
Words per stanza (avg) 17
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

31 sec read
65

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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