Analysis of The Woman In The Rye

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



'Why do you stand in the dripping rye,
Cold-lipped, unconscious, wet to the knee,
When there are firesides near?' said I.
'I told him I wished him dead,' said she.

'Yea, cried it in my haste to one
Whom I had loved, whom I well loved still;
And die he did. And I hate the sun,
And stand here lonely, aching, chill;

'Stand waiting, waiting under skies
That blow reproach, the while I see
The rooks sheer off to where he lies
Wrapt in a peace withheld from me.'


Scheme ABAB CDCD EBEB
Poetic Form Quatrain 
Metre 111100101 11101101 1111111 111111111 11101111 111111111 011101101 01110101 11010101 11010111 01111111 10010111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 456
Words 94
Sentences 6
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 12
Letters per line (avg) 29
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 115
Words per stanza (avg) 30
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on May 02, 2023

27 sec read
565

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…

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