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

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…

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