Analysis of At the Railway Station, Upways

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



'There is not much that I can do,
For I've no money that's quite my own!'
Spoke up the pitying child--
A little boy with a violin
At the station before the train came in,--
'But I can play my fiddle to you,
And a nice one 'tis, and good in tone!'

The man in the handcuffs smiled;
The constable looked, and he smiled too,
As the fiddle began to twang;
And the man in the handcuffs suddenly sang
With grimful glee:
'This life so free
Is the thing for me!'
And the constable smiled, and said no word,
As if unconscious of what he heard;
And so they went on till the train came in--
The convict, and boy with the violin.


Scheme ABCDDAB CAXXEEEFFDD
Poetic Form
Metre 11111111 111101111 1101001 010110001 1010010110 111111011 001110101 010011 010010111 10100111 0010011001 111 1111 10111 0010010111 11101111 0111110110 0100110001
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 623
Words 129
Sentences 5
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 7, 11
Lines Amount 18
Letters per line (avg) 26
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 231
Words per stanza (avg) 62
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 21, 2023

38 sec read
194

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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