Great Things
SWEET cyder is a great thing,A great thing to me,Spinning down to Weymouth townBy Ridgway thirstily,And maid and mistress summoningWho tend the hostelry:O cyder is a great thing,A great thing to me!
The dance it is a great thing,A great thing to me,With candles lit and partners fitFor night-long revelry;And going home when day-dawningPeeps pale upon the lea:O dancing is a great thing,A great thing to me!
Love is, yea, a great thing,A great thing to me,When, having drawn across the lawnIn darkness silently,A figure flits like one a-wingOut from the nearest tree:O love is, yes, a great thing,A great thing to me!
Will these be always great things,Great things to me? . . .Let it befall that One will call,“Soul, I have need of thee:”What then? Joy-jaunts, impassioned flings,Love, and its ecstasy,Will always have been great things,Great things to me!
Words in this poem
- thirstily adv.
- In a thirsty manner.
- hostelry n.
- An inn; a lodging house. [OE. hostelrie, hostelrye, ostelrie, OF. hostelerie, fr. hostel. See Hostel.]
- impassioned p. p.
- Actuated or characterized by passion or zeal; showing warmth of feeling; ardent; animated; excited; as, an impassioned orator or discourse.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Great Things 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, Great Things, in Moments of Vision and Miscellaneous Verses (1917), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3255, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hardy-moments-of-vision/great-things.html, id L24157.
Form and metre
Great Things is 32 lines in 4 stanzas of 8 lines each. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%).
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 AB--A-AB thingA · meB · town · thirstily · summoningA · hostelry · thingA · meB
- 2 AB--ABAB thingA · meB · fit · revelry · dawningA · leaB · thingA · meB
- 3 AB--ABAB thingA · meB · lawn · silently · wingA · treeB · thingA · meB
- 4 AB-BA-AB thingsA · meB · call · theeB · flingsA · ecstasy · thingsA · meB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| SWEET cyder is a great thing, | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| A great thing to me, | 5 | ····· |
| Spinning down to Weymouth town | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| By Ridgway thirstily, | 6 | ·/·/˘˘ |
| And maid and mistress summoning | 8 | ···/˘/˘˘ |
| Who tend the hostelry: | 6 | ···/˘˘ |
| O cyder is a great thing, | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| A great thing to me! | 5 | ····· |
| The dance it is a great thing, | 7 | ······· |
| A great thing to me, | 5 | ····· |
| With candles lit and partners fit | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| For night-long revelry; | 6 | ···/˘˘ |
| And going home when day-dawning | 8 | ·/˘···/˘ |
| Peeps pale upon the lea: | 6 | ······ |
| O dancing is a great thing, | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| A great thing to me! | 5 | ····· |
| Love is, yea, a great thing, | 6 | ······ |
| A great thing to me, | 5 | ····· |
| When, having drawn across the lawn | 8 | ·/˘·˘/·· |
| In darkness silently, | 6 | ·/˘/˘˘ |
| A figure flits like one a-wing | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Out from the nearest tree: | 6 | ···/˘· |
| O love is, yes, a great thing, | 7 | ······· |
| A great thing to me! | 5 | ····· |
| Will these be always great things, | 7 | ···/··· |
| Great things to me? . . . | 4 | ···· |
| Let it befall that One will call, | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| “Soul, I have need of thee:” | 6 | ······ |
| What then? Joy-jaunts, impassioned flings, | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| Love, and its ecstasy, | 6 | ···/˘˘ |
| Will always have been great things, | 7 | ·/····· |
| Great things to me! | 4 | ···· |
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.