The Recalcitrants

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



Let us off and search, and find a place
Where yours and mine can be natural lives,
Where no one comes who dissects and dives
And proclaims that ours is a curious case,
That its touch of romance can scarcely grace.

You would think it strange at first, but then
Everything has been strange in its time.
When some one said on a day of the prime
He would bow to no brazen god again
He doubtless dazed the mass of men.

None will recognize us as a pair whose claims
Righteous judgment we care not making;
Who have doubted if breath be worth the taking,
And have no respect for the current fames
Whence the savour has flown while abide the names.

We have found us already shunned, disdained,
And for re-acceptance have not once striven;
Whatever offence our course has given
The brunt thereof we have long sustained.
Well, let us away, scorned, unexplained.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

47 sec read
95

Quick analysis:

Scheme AXXAA BCCBB DEEAD FGGFF
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 839
Words 158
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 5, 5, 5, 5

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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