Analysis of An Ancient to Ancients
Thomas Hardy 1840 (Stinsford) – 1928 (Dorchester, Dorset)
Where once we danced, where once we sang,
Gentlemen,
The floors are sunken, cobwebs hang,
And cracks creep; worms have fed upon
The doors. Yea, sprightlier times were then
Than now, with harps and tabrets gone,
Gentlemen!
Where once we rowed, where once we sailed,
Gentlemen,
And damsels took the tiller, veiled
Against too strong a stare (God wot
Their fancy, then or anywhen!)
Upon that shore we are clean forgot,
Gentlemen!
We have lost somewhat of that, afar and near,
Gentlemen,
The thinning of our ranks each year
Affords a hint we are nigh undone,
That shall not be ever again
The marked of many, loved of one,
Gentlemen.
In dance the polka hit our wish,
Gentlemen,
The paced quadrille, the spry schottische,
"Sir Roger."--And in opera spheres
The "Girl" (the famed "Bohemian"),
And "Trovatore" held the ears,
Gentlemen.
This season's paintings do not please,
Gentlemen
Like Etty, Mulready, Maclise;
Throbbing romance had waned and wanned;
No wizard wields the witching pen
Of Bulwer, Scott, Dumas, and Sand,
Gentlemen.
The bower we shrined to Tennyson,
Gentlemen,
Is roof-wrecked; damps there drip upon
Sagged seats, the creeper-nails are rust,
The spider is sole denizen;
Even she who voiced those rhymes is dust,
Gentlemen!
We who met sunrise sanguine-souled,
Gentlemen,
Are wearing weary. We are old;
These younger press; we feel our rout
Is imminent to Aïdes' den,--
That evening shades are stretching out,
Gentlemen!
And yet, though ours be failing frames,
Gentlemen,
So were some others' history names,
Who trode their track light-limbed and fast
As these youth, and not alien
From enterprise, to their long last,
Gentlemen.
Sophocles, Plato, Socrates,
Gentlemen,
Pythagoras, Thucydides,
Herodotus, and Homer,--yea,
Clement, Augustin, Origen,
Burnt brightlier towards their setting-day,
Gentlemen.
And ye, red-lipped and smooth-browed; list,
Gentlemen;
Much is there waits you we have missed;
Much lore we leave you worth the knowing,
Much, much has lain outside our ken;
Nay, rush not: time serves: we are going,
Gentlemen.
Scheme | aBacdxB eBeebxB fBfgdgB hBhigiB jBiedxB gBckgkB eBxldlB mBmngnB jBioboB pBpqdqB |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Tetractys (37%) Etheree (23%) |
Metre | 11111111 100 0111011 01111101 0111101 1111011 100 11111111 100 0110101 01110111 110111 011111101 100 11111110101 100 010110111 010111101 11111001 01110111 100 010101101 100 011011 11000101 01010100 010101 100 11010111 100 11011 10011101 11010101 1111001 100 010111100 100 11111101 1101111 01011100 101111111 100 1111101 100 11010111 110111101 11001011 11011101 100 011101101 100 101101001 11111101 11101100 1101111 100 1001010 100 11 10101 100011 11011101 100 01110111 100 11111111 111111010 111111101 111111110 100 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 2,047 |
Words | 331 |
Sentences | 15 |
Stanzas | 10 |
Stanza Lengths | 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7 |
Lines Amount | 70 |
Letters per line (avg) | 23 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 159 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 33 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 30, 2023
- 1:40 min read
- 198 Views
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