Midnight on the Great Western
Thomas Hardy 1840 (Stinsford) – 1928 (Dorchester, Dorset)
In the third-class seat sat the journeying boy,
And the roof-lamp's oily flame
Played down on his listless form and face,
Bewrapt past knowing to what he was going,
Or whence he came.
In the band of his hat the journeying boy
Had a ticket stuck; and a string
Around his neck bore the key of his box,
That twinkled gleams of the lamp's sad beams
Like a living thing.
What past can be yours, O journeying boy
Towards a world uknown,
Who calmly, as if incurious quite
On all at stake, can undertake
This plunge alone?
Knows your soul a sphere, O journeying boy,
Our rude realms far above,
Whence with spacious vision you mark and mete
This region of sin that you find you in,
But are not of?
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 24, 2023
- 40 sec read
- 174 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | ABXCB ACXXC ADXXD AEXDE |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 696 |
Words | 133 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 5, 5, 5, 5 |
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"Midnight on the Great Western" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 2 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/36430/midnight-on-the-great-western>.
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