Analysis of The Shadow On The Stone
Thomas Hardy 1840 (Stinsford) – 1928 (Dorchester, Dorset)
I went by the Druid stone
That broods in the garden white and lone,
And I stopped and looked at the shifting shadows
That at some moments fall thereon
From the tree hard by with a rhythmic swing,
And they shaped in my imagining
To the shade that a well-known head and shoulders
Threw there when she was gardening.
I thought her behind my back,
Yea, her I long had learned to lack,
And I said: ‘I am sure you are standing behind me,
Though how do you get into this old track?’
And there was no sound but the fall of a leaf
As a sad response; and to keep down grief
I would not turn my head to discover
That there was nothing in my belief.
Yet I wanted to look and see
That nobody stood at the back of me;
But I thought once more: ‘Nay, I’ll not unvision
A shape which, somehow, there may be.’
So I went on softly from the glade,
And left her behind me throwing her shade,
As she were indeed an apparition—
My head unturned lest my dream should fade.
Scheme | AAXXBBXB CCDCEEXE DDADFFXF |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1110101 110010101 0110110101 11110101 1011110101 011010100 10110111010 11111100 1100111 10111111 0111111110011 1111101111 01111101101 1010101111 1111111010 111100101 11101101 11110111 111111111 0111111 111110101 0100111001 110011010 110111111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 968 |
Words | 193 |
Sentences | 6 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 24 |
Letters per line (avg) | 31 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 244 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 63 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 57 sec read
- 126 Views
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