Analysis of Her Immortality
Thomas Hardy 1840 (Stinsford) – 1928 (Dorchester, Dorset)
UPON a noon I pilgrimed through
A pasture, mile by mile,
Unto the place where I last saw
My dead Love's living smile.
And sorrowing I lay me down
Upon the heated sod:
It seemed as if my body pressed
The very ground she trod.
I lay, and thought; and in a trance
She came and stood me by--
The same, even to the marvellous ray
That used to light her eye.
"You draw me, and I come to you,
My faithful one," she said,
In voice that had the moving tone
It bore in maidenhead.
She said: "'Tis seven years since I died:
Few now remember me;
My husband clasps another bride;
My children mothers she.
My brethren, sisters, and my friends
Care not to meet my sprite:
Who prized me most I did not know
Till I passed down from sight."
I said: "My days are lonely here;
I need thy smile alway:
I'll use this night my ball or blade,
And join thee ere the day."
A tremor stirred her tender lips,
Which parted to dissuade:
"That cannot be, O friend," she cried;
"Think, I am but a Shade!
"A Shade but in its mindful ones
Has immortality;
By living, me you keep alive,
By dying you slay me.
"In you resides my single power
Of sweet continuance here;
On your fidelity I count
Through many a coming year."
--I started through me at her plight,
So suddenly confessed:
Dismissing late distaste for life,
I craved its bleak unrest.
"I will not die, my One of all!--
To lengthen out thy days
I'll guard me from minutest harms
That may invest my ways!"
She smiled and went. Since then she comes
Oft when her birth-moon climbs,
Or at the seasons' ingresses
Or anniversary times;
But grows my grief. When I surcease,
Through whom alone lives she,
Ceases my Love, her words, her ways,
Never again to be!
Scheme | ABCB XDED XFGF AXXD HIHI XJXJ KXLG XLHL XIXI XKXX JEXE XMXM XNCN CIMI |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (86%) |
Metre | 0101111 010111 10011111 111101 011111 010101 11111101 010111 11010001 110111 01101011 111101 11101111 110111 01110101 1101 111101111 110101 11010101 110101 11010011 111111 11111111 111111 11111101 11111 11111111 011101 01010101 110101 11011111 111101 01101101 10100 11011101 110111 010111010 1101001 11010011 1100101 11011101 110001 01010111 111101 11111111 110111 111111 110111 11011111 110111 110101 101001 1111111 110111 10110101 100111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,988 |
Words | 329 |
Sentences | 17 |
Stanzas | 14 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 56 |
Letters per line (avg) | 23 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 91 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 23 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 28, 2023
- 1:37 min read
- 394 Views
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