Analysis of The Tenant-For-Life
Thomas Hardy 1840 (Stinsford) – 1928 (Dorchester, Dorset)
The sun said, watching my watering-pot
"Some morn you'll pass away;
These flowers and plants I parch up hot -
Who'll water them that day?
"Those banks and beds whose shape your eye
Has planned in line so true,
New hands will change, unreasoning why
Such shape seemed best to you.
"Within your house will strangers sit,
And wonder how first it came;
They'll talk of their schemes for improving it,
And will not mention your name.
"They'll care not how, or when, or at what
You sighed, laughed, suffered here,
Though you feel more in an hour of the spot
Than they will feel in a year
"As I look on at you here, now,
Shall I look on at these;
But as to our old times, avow
No knowledge--hold my peace! . . .
"O friend, it matters not, I say;
Bethink ye, I have shined
On nobler ones than you, and they
Are dead men out of mind!"
Scheme | ABAB CDCD EFEF XXAX GXGX BHBH |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (67%) |
Metre | 0111011001 111101 110011111 110111 11011111 110111 11110101 111111 01111101 0101111 1111110101 0111011 111111111 111101 11110110101 1111001 11111111 111111 111101101 110111 11110111 11111 11011101 111111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 869 |
Words | 161 |
Sentences | 9 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 24 |
Letters per line (avg) | 26 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 104 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 27 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 25, 2023
- 49 sec read
- 69 Views
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