Analysis of The Coquette, and After (Triolets)

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



For long the cruel wish I knew
That your free heart should ache for me
While mine should bear no ache for you;
For, long--the cruel wish!--I knew
How men can feel, and craved to view
My triumph--fated not to be
For long! . . . The cruel wish I knew
That your free heart should ache for me!

At last one pays the penalty -
The woman--women always do.
My farce, I found, was tragedy
At last!--One pays the penalty
With interest when one, fancy-free,
Learns love, learns shame . . . Of sinners two
At last ONE pays the penalty -
The woman--women always do!


Scheme aBaaabaB BAbbbaBA
Poetic Form
Metre 11010111 11111111 11111111 11010111 11110111 11010111 11010111 11111111 11110100 0101011 11111100 11110100 11011101 11111101 11110100 0101011
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 565
Words 107
Sentences 13
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 8, 8
Lines Amount 16
Letters per line (avg) 26
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 206
Words per stanza (avg) 54
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

32 sec read
113

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…

All Thomas Hardy poems | Thomas Hardy Books

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