In Time of “The Breaking of Nations”
Only a man harrowing clodsIn a slow silent walkWith an old horse that stumbles and nodsHalf asleep as they stalk.
Only thin smoke without flameFrom the heaps of couch-grass;Yet this will go onward the sameThough Dynasties pass.
Yonder a maid and her wightCome whispering by:War’s annals will cloud into nightEre their story die.
Words in this poem
- yonder adv.
- At a distance, but within view. [OE. yonder, ýonder; cf. OD. ginder, Goth. jaindr there. Yond, adv.]
- wight n.
- A whit; a bit; a jot. [OE. wight, wiht, a wight, a whit, AS. wiht, wuht, a creature, a thing; skin to D. wicht a child, OS. & OHG. wiht a creature, thing, G. wicht a creature, Icel. v]
- annals n.
- A relation of events in chronological order, each event being recorded under the year in which it happened. [L. annalis (sc. liber), and more frequently in the pl. annales (sc. libri), chronicles, fr. annus year. Cf. Annual.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
In Time of “The Breaking of Nations” 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, In Time of “The Breaking of Nations”, in Moments of Vision and Miscellaneous Verses (1917), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3255, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hardy-moments-of-vision/in-time-of-the-breaking-of-nations.html, id L24240.
Form and metre
In Time of “The Breaking of Nations” is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. 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 ABAB clodsA · walkB · nodsA · stalkB
- 2 ABAB flameA · grassB · sameA · passB
- 3 ABAB wightA · byB · nightA · dieB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Only a man harrowing clods | 8 | /˘··/˘˘· |
| In a slow silent walk | 6 | ···/˘· |
| With an old horse that stumbles and nods | 9 | ·····/˘·· |
| Half asleep as they stalk. | 6 | ·˘/··· |
| Only thin smoke without flame | 7 | /˘····· |
| From the heaps of couch-grass; | 6 | ······ |
| Yet this will go onward the same | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| Though Dynasties pass. | 5 | ·/˘˘· |
| Yonder a maid and her wight | 7 | /˘····· |
| Come whispering by: | 5 | ·/˘˘· |
| War’s annals will cloud into night | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Ere their story die. | 5 | ··/˘· |
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.