Analysis of The Mother Mourns
Thomas Hardy 1840 (Stinsford) – 1928 (Dorchester, Dorset)
When mid-autumn's moan shook the night-time,
And sedges were horny,
And summer's green wonderwork faltered
On leaze and in lane,
I fared Yell'ham-Firs way, where dimly
Came wheeling around me
Those phantoms obscure and insistent
That shadows unchain.
Till airs from the needle-thicks brought me
A low lamentation,
As 'twere of a tree-god disheartened,
Perplexed, or in pain.
And, heeding, it awed me to gather
That Nature herself there
Was breathing in aerie accents,
With dirgeful refrain,
Weary plaint that Mankind, in these late days,
Had grieved her by holding
Her ancient high fame of perfection
In doubt and disdain . . .
- "I had not proposed me a Creature
(She soughed) so excelling
All else of my kingdom in compass
And brightness of brain
"As to read my defects with a god-glance,
Uncover each vestige
Of old inadvertence, annunciate
Each flaw and each stain!
"My purpose went not to develop
Such insight in Earthland;
Such potent appraisements affront me,
And sadden my reign!
"Why loosened I olden control here
To mechanize skywards,
Undeeming great scope could outshape in
A globe of such grain?
"Man's mountings of mind-sight I checked not,
Till range of his vision
Has topped my intent, and found blemish
Throughout my domain.
"He holds as inept his own soul-shell -
My deftest achievement -
Contemns me for fitful inventions
Ill-timed and inane:
"No more sees my sun as a Sanct-shape,
My moon as the Night-queen,
My stars as august and sublime ones
That influences rain:
"Reckons gross and ignoble my teaching,
Immoral my story,
My love-lights a lure, that my species
May gather and gain.
"'Give me,' he has said, 'but the matter
And means the gods lot her,
My brain could evolve a creation
More seemly, more sane.'
- "If ever a naughtiness seized me
To woo adulation
From creatures more keen than those crude ones
That first formed my train -
"If inly a moment I murmured,
'The simple praise sweetly,
But sweetlier the sage'--and did rashly
Man's vision unrein,
"I rue it! . . . His guileless forerunners,
Whose brains I could blandish,
To measure the deeps of my mysteries
Applied them in vain.
"From them my waste aimings and futile
I subtly could cover;
'Every best thing,' said they, 'to best purpose
Her powers preordain.' -
"No more such! . . . My species are dwindling,
My forests grow barren,
My popinjays fail from their tappings,
My larks from their strain.
"My leopardine beauties are rarer,
My tusky ones vanish,
My children have aped mine own slaughters
To quicken my wane.
"Let me grow, then, but mildews and mandrakes,
And slimy distortions,
Let nevermore things good and lovely
To me appertain;
"For Reason is rank in my temples,
And Vision unruly,
And chivalrous laud of my cunning
Is heard not again!"
Scheme | XABC AADA AAXC EXFC XGHC EGIC XXBC XBAC XFXC XHJC KDLC XXLC GAMC EEHC AHLC BAKX NJMC XEIC GHFC EJNC FLAA XAGX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 111011011 01010 0101110 11001 111111110 110011 110010010 111 111010111 011 111011010 01101 010111110 110011 11001010 1101 1011110111 110110 010111010 01001 111011010 111010 111110010 01011 1111101011 010110 110101 11011 110111010 1101 1101011 01011 110110011 1101 111110 01111 11111111 111110 111010110 01101 111011111 11010 11110010 11001 111111011 111011 111100011 11001 1010010110 010110 111011110 11001 111111010 010110 111010010 1111 1100111 11010 110111111 11111 11010110 010110 1101011 11010 11111010 11111 1100111100 01101 11111010 1100110 10011111110 01001 1111101100 110110 111111 11111 1110110 11110 110111110 11011 11111101 010010 11011010 111 110110110 010010 0111110 11101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 2,876 |
Words | 468 |
Sentences | 25 |
Stanzas | 22 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 88 |
Letters per line (avg) | 24 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 97 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 21 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on May 03, 2023
- 2:20 min read
- 170 Views
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