Analysis of The Bullfinches

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



Bother Bulleys, let us sing
   From the dawn till evening! -
For we know not that we go not
   When the day's pale pinions fold
   Unto those who sang of old.

When I flew to Blackmoor Vale,
   Whence the green-gowned faeries hail,
Roosting near them I could hear them
   Speak of queenly Nature's ways,
   Means, and moods,--well known to fays.

All we creatures, nigh and far
   (Said they there), the Mother's are:
Yet she never shows endeavour
   To protect from warrings wild
   Bird or beast she calls her child.

Busy in her handsome house
   Known as Space, she falls a-drowse;
Yet, in seeming, works on dreaming,
   While beneath her groping hands
   Fiends make havoc in her bands.

How her hussif'ry succeeds
   She unknows or she unheeds,
All things making for Death's taking!
   --So the green-gowned faeries say
   Living over Blackmoor way.

Come then, brethren, let us sing,
   From the dawn till evening! -
For we know not that we go not
   When the day's pale pinions fold
   Unto those who sang of old.


Scheme aABCC ddxee ffxgg xeahh xeaii aABCC
Poetic Form Etheree  (27%)
Metre 101111 101110 11111111 101111 1011111 111111 101111 1111111 111101 1011111 1110101 1110101 11101010 101111 1111101 1000101 1111101 10101110 1010101 1110001 10101 11111 11101110 101111 101011 1110111 101110 11111111 101111 1011111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 1,039
Words 176
Sentences 10
Stanzas 6
Stanza Lengths 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5
Lines Amount 30
Letters per line (avg) 25
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 124
Words per stanza (avg) 29
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 09, 2023

54 sec read
110

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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