Analysis of An August Midnight

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



A shaded lamp and a waving blind,
And the beat of a clock from a distant floor:
On this scene enter--winged, horned, and spined -
A longlegs, a moth, and a dumbledore;
While 'mid my page there idly stands
A sleepy fly, that rubs its hands . . .

Thus meet we five, in this still place,
At this point of time, at this point in space.
- My guests parade my new-penned ink,
Or bang at the lamp-glass, whirl, and sink.
"God's humblest, they!" I muse. Yet why?
They know Earth-secrets that know not I.


Scheme ABABCC DDEEFF
Poetic Form
Metre 010100101 00110110101 111101101 0101001 11111101 01011111 11110111 1111111101 11011111 111011101 110011111 111101111
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 508
Words 98
Sentences 10
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 6, 6
Lines Amount 12
Letters per line (avg) 30
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 183
Words per stanza (avg) 48
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on May 02, 2023

29 sec read
209

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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