A Christmas Ghost Story.

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



South of the Line, inland from far Durban,
A mouldering soldier lies--your countryman.
Awry and doubled up are his gray bones,
And on the breeze his puzzled phantom moans
Nightly to clear Canopus:  "I would know
By whom and when the All-Earth-gladdening Law
Of Peace, brought in by that Man Crucified,
Was ruled to be inept, and set aside?

And what of logic or of truth appears
In tacking 'Anno Domini' to the years?
Near twenty-hundred livened thus have hied,
But tarries yet the Cause for which He died."

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 22, 2023

27 sec read
172

Quick analysis:

Scheme AABBXXCC DDCC
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 503
Words 92
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 8, 4

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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    "A Christmas Ghost Story." Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Mar. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/36299/a-christmas-ghost-story.>.

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    What is the term for the continuation of a sentence without a pause beyond the end of a line, couplet, or stanza.
    A A turn
    B Enjambment
    C Dithyramb
    D Line break