Analysis of To An Orphan Child

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



AH, child, thou art but half thy darling mother's;
        Hers couldst thou wholly be,
     My light in thee would outglow all in others;
        She would relive to me.
     But niggard Nature's trick of birth
        Bars, lest she overjoy,
     Renewal of the loved on earth
        Save with alloy.

The Dame has no regard, alas, my maiden,
        For love and loss like mine--
     No sympathy with mind-sight memory-laden;
        Only with fickle eyne.
     To her mechanic artistry
        My dreams are all unknown,
     And why I wish that thou couldst be
        But One's alone!


Scheme ABABCXCX DXDDBEBE
Poetic Form
Metre 11111111010 011101 1101111010 110111 11010111 1111 01010111 111 01110101110 110111 110011110010 101101 10010100 111101 01111111 1101
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 603
Words 94
Sentences 5
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 8, 8
Lines Amount 16
Letters per line (avg) 24
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 193
Words per stanza (avg) 45
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

29 sec read
139

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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