Analysis of Lines
Thomas Hardy 1840 (Stinsford) – 1928 (Dorchester, Dorset)
Spoken by Miss Ada Rehan at the Lyceum Theatre, July 23, 1890, at a
performance on behalf of Lady Jeune's Holiday Fund for City Children.
BEFORE we part to alien thoughts and aims,
Permit the one brief word the occasion claims;
--When mumming and grave projects are allied,
Perhaps an Epilogue is justified.
Our under-purpose has, in truth, to-day
Commanded most our musings; least the play:
A purpose futile but for your good-will
Swiftly responsive to the cry of ill:
A purpose all too limited!--to aid
Frail human flowerets, sicklied by the shade,
In winning some short spell of upland breeze,
Or strengthening sunlight on the level leas.
Who has not marked, where the full cheek should be,
Incipient lines of lank flaccidity,
Lymphatic pallor where the pink should glow,
And where the throb of transport, pulses low?--
Most tragical of shapes from Pole to Line,
O wondering child, unwitting Time's design,
Why should Art add to Nature's quandary,
And worsen ill by thus immuring thee?
--That races can do despite to their own,
That Might supernal do indeed condone
Wrongs individual for the general ease,
Instance the proof in victims such as these.
Launched into thoroughfares too thronged before,
Mothered by those whose protest is "No more!"
Vitalized without option: who shall say
That did Life hang on choosing--Yea or Nay--
They had not scorned it with such penalty,
And nothingness implored of Destiny?
And yet behind the horizon smile serene
The down, the cornland, and the stretching green--
Space--the child's heaven: scenes which at least ensure
Some palliative for ill they cannot cure.
Dear friends--now moved by this poor show of ours
To make your own long joy in buds and bowers
For one brief while the joy of infant eyes,
Changing their urban murk to paradise--
You have our thanks!--may your reward include
More than our thanks, far more: their gratitude.
Scheme | XX AABB CCDDEEFF GBHHIIGGJJFF KKCCGG LLMM NNXXOO |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1011101101100110 010101110110111010 01111100101 01011100101 110110101 01110110 10101010111 01011010101 0101011111 1001010111 0101110011 11011101 0101111101 1100110101 1111101111 01001111 10110111 0101101101 11111111 11001010101 1111110100 01011111 1101101111 11110101 10100101001 1001010111 101101101 11111111 10110111 1111110111 1111111100 0100011100 01010010101 010100101 10110111101 11000111101 11111111110 11111101010 1111011101 101101110 11101110101 1110111110 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 2,048 |
Words | 320 |
Sentences | 13 |
Stanzas | 7 |
Stanza Lengths | 2, 4, 8, 12, 6, 4, 6 |
Lines Amount | 42 |
Letters per line (avg) | 35 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 212 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 45 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:36 min read
- 73 Views
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"Lines" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 1 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/36424/lines>.
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