Analysis of The Milkmaid
Thomas Hardy 1840 (Stinsford) – 1928 (Dorchester, Dorset)
Under a daisied bank
There stands a rich red ruminating cow,
And hard against her flank
A cotton-hooded milkmaid bends her brow.
The flowery river-ooze
Upheaves and falls; the milk purrs in the pail;
Few pilgrims but would choose
The peace of such a life in such a vale.
The maid breathes words--to vent,
It seems, her sense of Nature's scenery,
Of whose life, sentiment,
And essence, very part itself is she.
She bends a glance of pain,
And, at a moment, lets escape a tear;
Is it that passing train,
Whose alien whirr offends her country ear? -
Nay! Phyllis does not dwell
On visual and familiar things like these;
What moves her is the spell
Of inner themes and inner poetries:
Could but by Sunday morn
Her gay new gown come, meads might dry to dun,
Trains shriek till ears were torn,
If Fred would not prefer that Other One.
Scheme | ABAB CDCD XEXE FXFX GXGC HIHI |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (83%) |
Metre | 10011 1101111 010101 010101101 0100101 101011001 110111 0111010101 011111 1101110100 111100 0101010111 110111 0101010101 111101 11001010101 110111 11000010111 110101 11010101 11111 0111111111 111101 1111011101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 869 |
Words | 154 |
Sentences | 7 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 24 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 108 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 25 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 20, 2023
- 46 sec read
- 147 Views
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