Analysis of To A Lady

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



Offended by a Book of the Writer's

NOW that my page upcloses, doomed, maybe,
     Never to press thy cosy cushions more,
     Or wake thy ready Yeas as heretofore,
     Or stir thy gentle vows of faith in me:

Knowing thy natural receptivity,
     I figure that, as flambeaux banish eve,
     My sombre image, warped by insidious heave
     Of those less forthright, must lose place in thee.

So be it. I have borne such. Let thy dreams
     Of me and mine diminish day by day,
     And yield their space to shine of smugger things;
     Till I shape to thee but in fitful gleams,
     And then in far and feeble visitings,
     And then surcease. Truth will be truth alway.


Scheme A BCCB BDDB EXXEAX
Poetic Form Tetractys  (20%)
Metre 0101011010 11111110 1011110101 111101101 1111011101 1011001100 110111101 11101101001 1111111101 1111111111 1101010111 011111111 1111110101 01010101 01111111
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 681
Words 117
Sentences 6
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 1, 4, 4, 6
Lines Amount 15
Letters per line (avg) 32
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 121
Words per stanza (avg) 29
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 23, 2023

35 sec read
127

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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    A figure of speech that compares two unlike things using "like" or "as" is called a _______.
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    B simile
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