Analysis of Friends Beyond
Thomas Hardy 1840 (Stinsford) – 1928 (Dorchester, Dorset)
WILLIAM Dewy, Tranter Reuben, Farmer Ledlow late at plough,
Robert's kin, and John's, and Ned's,
And the Squire, and Lady Susan, lie in Mellstock churchyard now!
"Gone," I call them, gone for good, that group of local hearts and
heads;
Yet at mothy curfew-tide,
And at midnight when the noon-heat breathes it back from walls and
leads,
They've a way of whispering to me--fellow-wight who yet abide--
In the muted, measured note
Of a ripple under archways, or a lone cave's stillicide:
"We have triumphed: this achievement turns the bane to antidote,
Unsuccesses to success,
Many thought-worn eves and morrows to a morrow free of thought.
"No more need we corn and clothing, feel of old terrestrial stress;
Chill detraction stirs no sigh;
Fear of death has even bygone us: death gave all that we possess."
W. D.--"Ye mid burn the wold bass-viol that I set such vallie by."
Squire.--"You may hold the manse in fee,
You may wed my spouse, my children's memory of me may decry."
Lady.--"You may have my rich brocades, my laces; take each household
key;
Ransack coffer, desk, bureau;
Quiz the few poor treasures hid there, con the letters kept by me."
Far.--"Ye mid zell my favorite heifer, ye mid let the charlock grow,
Foul the grinterns, give up thrift."
Wife.--"If ye break my best blue china, children, I sha'n't care or
ho."
All--"We've no wish to hear the tidings, how the people's fortunes
shift;
What your daily doings are;
Who are wedded, born, divided; if your lives beat slow or swift.
"Curious not the least are we if our intents you make or mar,
If you quire to our old tune,
If the City stage still passes, if the weirs still roar afar."
Thus, with very gods' composure, freed those crosses late and soon
Which, in life, the Trine allow
(Why, none witteth), and ignoring all that haps beneath the moon,
William Dewy, Tranter Reuben, Farmer Ledlow late at plough,
Robert's kin, and John's, and Ned's,
And the Squire, and Lady Susan, murmur mildly to me now.
Scheme | ABa cbdcx dec efx fgf ghg xhih ijxi xjkj klk lal ABa |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 101010101011111 1010101 0010101010111 11111111111010 1 111101 0111011111110 1 1011100111011101 0010101 101010110111 11101010101110 1101 10111011010111 1111101011101001 11111 111110111111101 100111101111111101 11110101 1111111010011101 101111101110111 1 110110 101110111010111 1111110010111011 101111 11111111010111111 1 111111010101010 1 1110101 111010101111111 10010111110011111 11111011 101011101011101 111010101110101 1010101 11100101110101 101010101011111 1010101 001010101010111 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 2,176 |
Words | 358 |
Sentences | 18 |
Stanzas | 12 |
Stanza Lengths | 3, 5, 3, 3, 3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 3, 3, 3 |
Lines Amount | 41 |
Letters per line (avg) | 36 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 124 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 29 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 21, 2023
- 1:50 min read
- 205 Views
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"Friends Beyond" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 19 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/36368/friends-beyond>.
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