Analysis of The Well-Beloved
Thomas Hardy 1840 (Stinsford) – 1928 (Dorchester, Dorset)
I wayed by star and planet shine
Towards the dear one's home
At Kingsbere, there to make her mine
When the next sun upclomb.
I edged the ancient hill and wood
Beside the Ikling Way,
Nigh where the Pagan temple stood
In the world's earlier day.
And as I quick and quicker walked
On gravel and on green,
I sang to sky, and tree, or talked
Of her I called my queen.
- "O faultless is her dainty form,
And luminous her mind;
She is the God-created norm
Of perfect womankind!"
A shape whereon one star-blink gleamed
Glode softly by my side,
A woman's; and her motion seemed
The motion of my bride.
And yet methought she'd drawn erstwhile
Adown the ancient leaze,
Where once were pile and peristyle
For men's idolatries.
- "O maiden lithe and lone, what may
Thy name and lineage be,
Who so resemblest by this ray
My darling?--Art thou she?"
The Shape: "Thy bride remains within
Her father's grange and grove."
- "Thou speakest rightly," I broke in,
"Thou art not she I love."
- "Nay: though thy bride remains inside
Her father's walls," said she,
"The one most dear is with thee here,
For thou dost love but me."
Then I: "But she, my only choice,
Is now at Kingsbere Grove?"
Again her soft mysterious voice:
"I am thy only Love."
Thus still she vouched, and still I said,
"O sprite, that cannot be!" . . .
It was as if my bosom bled,
So much she troubled me.
The sprite resumed: "Thou hast transferred
To her dull form awhile
My beauty, fame, and deed, and word,
My gestures and my smile.
"O fatuous man, this truth infer,
Brides are not what they seem;
Thou lovest what thou dreamest her;
I am thy very dream!"
- "O then," I answered miserably,
Speaking as scarce I knew,
"My loved one, I must wed with thee
If what thou say'st be true!"
She, proudly, thinning in the gloom:
"Though, since troth-plight began,
I've ever stood as bride to groom,
I wed no mortal man!"
Thereat she vanished by the Cross
That, entering Kingsbere town,
The two long lanes form, near the fosse
Below the faneless Down.
- When I arrived and met my bride,
Her look was pinched and thin,
As if her soul had shrunk and died,
And left a waste within.
Scheme | ABAB CDCD EFEF GXGC HIHI JKJK DLDL MNMO ILXL KNKO PLPL QJQJ RSRS LTLT UVUV KWKW IMIM |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (88%) |
Metre | 11110101 010111 1111101 10111 11010101 01011 11010101 0011001 01110101 110011 11110111 101111 1110101 010001 11010101 1011 0111111 110111 01000101 010111 011111 10101 1101010 111 11010111 1101001 111111 110111 01110101 010101 1110110 111111 11110101 010111 01111111 111111 11111101 11111 010101001 111101 11110111 111101 11111101 111101 01011101 101101 11010101 110011 110011101 111111 111110 111101 111101000 101111 11111111 1111111 11010001 111101 11011111 111101 1110101 110011 01111101 01011 11010111 011101 11011101 010101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 2,228 |
Words | 411 |
Sentences | 25 |
Stanzas | 17 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 68 |
Letters per line (avg) | 23 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 94 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 23 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 2:01 min read
- 114 Views
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"The Well-Beloved" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/36585/the-well-beloved>.
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