The Master And The Leaves

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



I
We are budding, master, budding,
We of your favourite tree;
March drought and April flooding
Arouse us merrily.
The stemlets brightly studding;
And yet you do not see.

II
We are fully woven for summer
In modes of limpest green,
The twitterer and the hummer
Here rest their rounds between,
While like a 'long-roll' drummer
The night-hawk thrills the treen.

III
We are turning yellow, master,
And next we are turning red,
And faster then and faster
Shall seek our rooty bed—
All wasted in disaster
The magic show we spread!

IV
'I mark your early going,
And that you'll soon be clay,
I have seen your summer showing
As in my youthful day;
But why I seem unknowing
Is too deep down to say.'

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

38 sec read
82

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABCBCBC ADEDEDE ADFDFDF XBGBGBG
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 671
Words 129
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 7, 7, 7, 7

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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