Zermat: To the Matterhorn (June-July, 1897)

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



Thirty-two years since, up against the sun,
Seven shapes, thin atomies to lower sight,
Labouringly leapt and gained thy gabled height,
And four lives paid for what the seven had won.

They were the first by whom the deed was done,
And when I look at thee, my mind takes flight
To that day's tragic feat of manly might,
As though, till then, of history thou hadst none.

Yet ages ere men topped thee, late and soon
Thou watch'dst each night the planets lift and lower;
Thou gleam'dst to Joshua's pausing sun and moon,
And brav'dst the tokening sky when Caesar's power
Approached its bloody end: yea, saw'st that Noon
When darkness filled the earth till the ninth hour.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

38 sec read
141

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABBA ABBA CDCDCD
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 673
Words 121
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 6

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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