An Upbraiding
NOW I am dead you sing to meThe songs we used to know,But while I lived you had no wishOr care for doing so.
Now I am dead you come to meIn the moonlight, comfortless;Ah, what would I have given aliveTo win such tenderness!
When you are dead, and stand to meNot differenced, as now,But like again, will you be coldAs when we lived, or how?
Words in this poem
- comfortless a.
- Without comfort or comforts; in want or distress; cheerless.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
An Upbraiding 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 Upbraiding, in Moments of Vision and Miscellaneous Verses (1917), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3255, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hardy-moments-of-vision/an-upbraiding.html, id L24226.
Form and metre
An Upbraiding is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%).
See other poems in common measure.
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 -A-A me · knowA · wish · soA
- 2 -A-A me · comfortlessA · alive · tendernessA
- 3 -A-A me · nowA · cold · howA
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 common measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| NOW I am dead you sing to me | 8 | ········ |
| The songs we used to know, | 6 | ······ |
| But while I lived you had no wish | 8 | ········ |
| Or care for doing so. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Now I am dead you come to me | 8 | ········ |
| In the moonlight, comfortless; | 7 | ··/·/˘˘ |
| Ah, what would I have given alive | 8 | ·····/˘/ |
| To win such tenderness! | 6 | ···/˘˘ |
| When you are dead, and stand to me | 8 | ········ |
| Not differenced, as now, | 6 | ·/˘˘·· |
| But like again, will you be cold | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| As when we lived, or how? | 6 | ······ |
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.