“It Never Looks Like Summer”
“IT never looks like summer hereOn Beeny by the sea.”But though she saw its look as drear,Summer it seemed to me.
It never looks like summer nowWhatever weather’s there;But ah, it cannot anyhow,On Beeny or elsewhere!
BOSCASTLE,March 8, 1913.
Words in this poem
- drear n.
- Sadness; dismalness.
- anyhow adv.
- In any way or manner whatever; at any rate; in any event.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
“It Never Looks Like Summer” 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, “It Never Looks Like Summer”, in Moments of Vision and Miscellaneous Verses (1917), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3255, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hardy-moments-of-vision/it-never-looks-like-summer.html, id L24197.
Form and metre
“It Never Looks Like Summer” is 10 lines in 3 stanzas. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 2 of its 3 stanzas. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 96%).
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 ABAB hereA · seaB · drearA · meB
- 2 ABAB nowA · thereB · anyhowA · elsewhereB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| “IT never looks like summer here | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| On Beeny by the sea.” | 6 | ······ |
| But though she saw its look as drear, | 8 | ········ |
| Summer it seemed to me. | 6 | /˘···· |
| It never looks like summer now | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Whatever weather’s there; | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| But ah, it cannot anyhow, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| On Beeny or elsewhere! | 6 | ····/· |
| BOSCASTLE, | 3 | ··· |
| March 8, 1913. | 1 | · |
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.