Analysis of No Buyers
Thomas Hardy 1840 (Stinsford) – 1928 (Dorchester, Dorset)
A Load of brushes and baskets and cradles and chairs
Labours along the street in the rain:
With it a man, a woman, a pony with whiteybrown hairs. --
The man foots in front of the horse with a shambling sway
At a slower tread than a funeral train,
While to a dirge-like tune he chants his wares,
Swinging a Turk's-head brush (in a drum-major's way
When the bandsmen march and play).
A yard from the back of the man is the whiteybrown pony's nose:
He mirrors his master in every item of pace and pose:
He stops when the man stops, without being told,
And seems to be eased by a pause; too plainly he's old,
Indeed, not strength enough shows
To steer the disjointed waggon straight,
Which wriggles left and right in a rambling line,
Deflected thus by its own warp and weight,
And pushing the pony with it in each incline.
The woman walks on the pavement verge,
Parallel to the man:
She wears an apron white and wide in span,
And carries a like Turk's-head, but more in nursing-wise:
Now and then she joins in his dirge,
But as if her thoughts were on distant things,
The rain clams her apron till it clings. --
So, step by step, they move with their merchandize,
And nobody buys.
Scheme | ABACBACC DDEEDFGFG HIIJHKKAJ |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 0111001001001 10101001 110101001111 011011011011 10101101001 1101111111 100111001101 101101 0110110110111 1101100100101101 11101101101 0111110111011 0111011 11001011 1110100101 0101111101 01001110101 010110101 10101 1111010101 0100111110101 10111011 1110101101 011010111 111111111 011 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,159 |
Words | 223 |
Sentences | 6 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 9, 9 |
Lines Amount | 26 |
Letters per line (avg) | 35 |
Words per line (avg) | 9 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 303 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 74 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 15, 2023
- 1:08 min read
- 92 Views
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"No Buyers" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 21 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/36440/no-buyers>.
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