Analysis of The Sleep-Worker

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



When wilt thou wake, O Mother, wake and see -
As one who, held in trance, has laboured long
By vacant rote and prepossession strong -
The coils that thou hast wrought unwittingly;

Wherein have place, unrealized by thee,
Fair growths, foul cankers, right enmeshed with wrong,
Strange orchestras of victim-shriek and song,
And curious blends of ache and ecstasy? -

Should that morn come, and show thy opened eyes
All that Life's palpitating tissues feel,
How wilt thou bear thyself in thy surprise? -

Wilt thou destroy, in one wild shock of shame,
Thy whole high heaving firmamental frame,
Or patiently adjust, amend, and heal?


Scheme ABBA ABBA CDC EED
Poetic Form
Metre 1111110101 111101111 1101011 0111110100 011101011 1111010111 1100110101 01001110100 1111011101 111100011 111110101 1101011111 1111011 1100010101
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 633
Words 108
Sentences 4
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 3, 3
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 35
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 123
Words per stanza (avg) 27
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

32 sec read
68

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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