An Anniversary
IT was at the very date to which we have come,In the month of the matching name,When, at a like minute, the sun had upswum,Its couch-time at night being the same.And the same path stretched here that people now follow,And the same stile crossed their way,And beyond the same green hillock and hollowThe same horizon lay;And the same man pilgrims now hereby who pilgrimed here that day.
Let so much be said of the date-day’s sameness;But the tree that neighbours the track,And stoops like a pedlar afflicted with lameness,Knew of no sogged wound or windcrack.And the joints of that wall were not enshroudedWith mosses of many tones,And the garth up afar was not overcrowdedWith a multitude of white stones,And the man’s eyes then were not so sunk that you saw thesocket-bones.
Words in this poem
- stile n.
- A pin set on the face of a dial, to cast a shadow; a style. See Style. Moxon. [See Style.]
- hereby adv.
- By means of this.
- afar adv.
- At, to, or from a great distance; far away; -- often used with from preceding, or off following; as, he was seen from afar; I saw him afar off. [Pref. a-.(for on or of) + far.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
An Anniversary is in the public domain. This text is taken from Moments of Vision and Miscellaneous Verses, Project Gutenberg ebook #3255; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Thomas Hardy, An Anniversary, in Moments of Vision and Miscellaneous Verses (1917), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3255, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hardy-moments-of-vision/an-anniversary.html, id L24150.
Form and metre
An Anniversary is 19 lines in 2 stanzas. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic trimeter.
See other poems in iambic trimeter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 ABABCDCDD comeA · nameB · upswumA · sameB · followC · wayD · hollowC · layD · dayD
- 2 ABAB-C-C-C samenessA · trackB · lamenessA · windcrackB · enshrouded · tonesC · overcrowded · stonesC · the · bonesC
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| IT was at the very date to which we have come, | 12 | ····/˘······ |
| In the month of the matching name, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| When, at a like minute, the sun had upswum, | 11 | ····/˘····· |
| Its couch-time at night being the same. | 8 | ·····/·· |
| And the same path stretched here that people now follow, | 12 | ·······/˘·/˘ |
| And the same stile crossed their way, | 8 | ·····˘·· |
| And beyond the same green hillock and hollow | 11 | ······/˘·/˘ |
| The same horizon lay; | 6 | ··˘/˘· |
| And the same man pilgrims now hereby who pilgrimed here that day. | 15 | ····/˘·˘/·/˘··· |
| Let so much be said of the date-day’s sameness; | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| But the tree that neighbours the track, | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| And stoops like a pedlar afflicted with lameness, | 12 | ······˘/˘·/˘ |
| Knew of no sogged wound or windcrack. | 8 | ········ |
| And the joints of that wall were not enshrouded | 11 | ········˘/˘ |
| With mosses of many tones, | 7 | ·/˘·/˘· |
| And the garth up afar was not overcrowded | 12 | ····˘/··/˘·˘ |
| With a multitude of white stones, | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| And the man’s eyes then were not so sunk that you saw the | 13 | ············· |
| socket-bones. | 3 | /˘· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.