The Selfsame Song

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



A bird sings the selfsame song,
With never a fault in its flow,
That we listened to here those long
Long years ago.

A pleasing marvel is how
A strain of such rapturous rote
Should have gone on thus till now
unchanged in a note!

--But its not the selfsame bird.--
No: perished to dust is he....
As also are those who heard
That song with me.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on May 01, 2023

21 sec read
551

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABAB CDCD EFEF
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 346
Words 70
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4

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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