Analysis of In A Wook

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



PALE beech and pine-tree blue,
        Set in one clay,
     Bough to bough cannot you
        Bide out your day?
     When the rains skim and skip,
     Why mar sweet comradeship,
     Blighting with poison-drip
        Neighborly spray?

Heart-halt and spirit-lame,
        City-opprest,
     Unto this wood I came
        As to a nest;
     Dreaming that sylvan peace
     Offered the harrowed ease--
     Nature a soft release
        From men's unrest.

But, having entered in,
        Great growths and small
     Show them to men akin--
        Combatants all!
     Sycamore shoulders oak,
     Bines the slim sapling yoke,
     Ivy-spun halters choke
        Elms stout and tall.

Touches from ash, O wych,
        Sting you like scorn!
     You, too, brave hollies, twitch
        Sidelong from thorn.
     Even the rank poplars bear
     Illy a rival's air,
     Cankering in black despair
        If overborne.

Since, then, no grace I find
        Taught me of trees,
     Turn I back to my kind,
        Worthy as these.
     There at least smiles abound,
     There discourse trills around,
     There, now and then, are found
        Life-loyalties.


Scheme ABABCCCB DEDEFGFE HIHIJJJI KLKLMMMH EGEGEEEG
Poetic Form Tetractys  (30%)
Etheree  (23%)
Metre 110111 1011 111101 1111 101101 1111 11101 1001 110101 101 101111 1101 101101 10011 100101 1101 110100 1101 111101 0101 10101 101101 101101 1101 101111 1111 111101 111 100111 10101 10101 11 111111 1111 111111 1011 111101 110101 110111 1100
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 1,149
Words 160
Sentences 11
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 8, 8, 8, 8, 8
Lines Amount 40
Letters per line (avg) 18
Words per line (avg) 4
Letters per stanza (avg) 147
Words per stanza (avg) 32
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

48 sec read
138

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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