Analysis of A Jog-Trot Pair

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



Who were the twain that trod this track
So many times together
Hither and back,
In spells of certain and uncertain weather?

Commonplace in conduct they
Who wandered to and fro here
Day by day:
Two that few dwellers troubled themselves to know here.

The very gravel-path was prim
That daily they would follow:
Borders trim:
Never a wayward sprout, or hump, or hollow.

Trite usages in tamest style
Had tended to their plighting.
'It's just worth while,
Perhaps,' they had said. 'And saves much sad good-nighting.'

And petty seemed the happenings
That ministered to their joyance:
Simple things,
Onerous to satiate souls, increased their buoyance.

Who could those common people be,
Of days the plainest, barest?
They were we;
Yes; happier than the cleverest, smartest, rarest.


Scheme ABAB CDCD EFEF GAGA HHHH IJIJ
Poetic Form Quatrain 
Metre 10011111 1101010 1001 01110001010 100011 1101011 111 111101001111 01010111 1101110 101 10010111110 1100011 110111 1111 01111011111 01010100 11111 101 1001110111 11110101 110110 101 11001011010
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 758
Words 131
Sentences 10
Stanzas 6
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 24
Letters per line (avg) 26
Words per line (avg) 5
Letters per stanza (avg) 102
Words per stanza (avg) 21
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

39 sec read
74

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…

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