Analysis of To Meet, Or Otherwise
Thomas Hardy 1840 (Stinsford) – 1928 (Dorchester, Dorset)
Whether to sally and see thee, girl of my dreams,
Or whether to stay
And see thee not! How vast the difference seems
Of Yea from Nay
Just now. Yet this same sun will slant its beams
At no far day
On our two mounds, and then what will the difference weigh!
Yet I will see thee, maiden dear, and make
The most I can
Of what remains to us amid this brake
Cimmerian
Through which we grope, and from whose thorns we ache,
While still we scan
Round our frail faltering progress for some path or plan.
By briefest meeting something sure is won;
It will have been:
Nor God nor Daemon can undo the done,
Unsight the seen,
Make muted music be as unbegun,
Though things terrene
Groan in their bondage till oblivion supervene.
So, to the one long-sweeping symphony
From times remote
Till now, of human tenderness, shall we
Supply one note,
Small and untraced, yet that will ever be
Somewhere afloat
Amid the spheres, as part of sick Life's antidote.
Scheme | ABABABBCDCDCDDEFEGDDDHIHIHII |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 101100111111 11011 01111101001 1111 1111111111 1111 11011011101001 1111110101 0111 1101110111 1 1111011111 1111 1101100111111 1101010111 1111 1111010101 101 11010111 111 10110101001 1101110100 1101 1111010011 0111 101111101 101 01011111110 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 918 |
Words | 176 |
Sentences | 7 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 28 |
Lines Amount | 28 |
Letters per line (avg) | 26 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 738 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 174 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 53 sec read
- 157 Views
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