Laurel · Thomas Hardy · Moments of Vision and Miscellaneous Verses

Her Love-Birds

Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) · 1917

iambic tetrameter · ABBAAB · 24 lines · from Moments of Vision and Miscellaneous Verses

WHEN I looked up at my love-birdsThat Sunday afternoon,There was in their tiny tuneA dying fetch like broken words,When I looked up at my love-birdsThat Sunday afternoon.

When he, too, scanned the love-birdsOn entering there that day,’Twas as if he had nought to sayOf his long journey citywards,When he, too, scanned the love-birds,On entering there that day.

And billed and billed the love-birds,As ’twere in fond despairAt the stress of silence whereHad once been tones in tenor thirds,And billed and billed the love-birdsAs ’twere in fond despair.

O, his speech that chilled the love-birds,And smote like death on me,As I learnt what was to be,And knew my life was broke in sherds!O, his speech that chilled the love-birds,And smote like death on me!

Words in this poem

afternoon n.: The part of the day which follows noon, between noon and evening.
chilled a.: Hardened on the surface or edge by chilling; as, chilled iron; a chilled wheel.
broke v. i.: To transact business for another. Brome. [See Broker, and cf. Brook.]

Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.

About this text

Her Love-Birds 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, Her Love-Birds, in Moments of Vision and Miscellaneous Verses (1917), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3255, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hardy-moments-of-vision/her-love-birds.html, id L24194.

Form and metre

Her Love-Birds is 24 lines in 4 stanzas of 6 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABBAAB, complete in 2 of its 4 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%).

See other poems in iambic tetrameter.

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 ABBAAB birds^A · afternoon^B · tune^B · words^A · birds^A · afternoon^B
2 ABB-AB birds^A · day^B · say^B · citywards · birds^A · day^B
3 ABBAAB birds^A · despair^B · where^B · thirds^A · birds^A · despair^B
4 ABB-AB birds^A · me^B · be^B · sherds · birds^A · me^B

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 tetrameter. How this is done.

Line	Syl.	Stress
WHEN I looked up at my love-birds	8	········
That Sunday afternoon,	6	·/··˘/
There was in their tiny tune	7	····/˘·
A dying fetch like broken words,	8	·/˘··/˘·
When I looked up at my love-birds	8	········
That Sunday afternoon.	6	·/··˘/
When he, too, scanned the love-birds	7	·······
On entering there that day,	7	·/˘˘···
’Twas as if he had nought to say	8	········
Of his long journey citywards,	8	···/˘···
When he, too, scanned the love-birds,	7	·······
On entering there that day.	7	·/˘˘···
And billed and billed the love-birds,	7	·······
As ’twere in fond despair	6	····˘/
At the stress of silence where	7	····/˘·
Had once been tones in tenor thirds,	8	·····/˘·
And billed and billed the love-birds	7	·······
As ’twere in fond despair.	6	····˘/
O, his speech that chilled the love-birds,	8	········
And smote like death on me,	6	······
As I learnt what was to be,	7	·······
And knew my life was broke in sherds!	8	········
O, his speech that chilled the love-birds,	8	········
And smote like death on me!	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.

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