Joys of Memory
WHEN the spring comes round, and a certain dayLooks out from the brume by the eastern copsetreesAnd says, Remember,I begin again, as if it were new,A day of like date I once lived through,Whiling it hour by hour away;So shall I do till my December,When spring comes round.
I take my holiday then and my restAway from the dun life here about me,Old hours re-greetingWith the quiet sense that bring they mustSuch throbs as at first, till I house with dust,And in the numbness my heartsome zestFor things that were, be past repeatingWhen spring comes round.
Words in this poem
- brume n.
- Mist; fog; vapors. [F. brume winter season, mist, L. bruma winter.]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- heartsome a.
- Merry; cheerful; lively.
- zest n.
- A piece of orange or lemon peel, or the aromatic oil which may be squeezed from such peel, used to give flavor to liquor, etc. [F. zeste, probably fr. L. schistos split, cleft, divided, Gr. Schism.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Joys of Memory 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, Joys of Memory, in Moments of Vision and Miscellaneous Verses (1917), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3255, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hardy-moments-of-vision/joys-of-memory.html, id L24113.
Form and metre
Joys of Memory is 16 lines in 2 stanzas of 8 lines each. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 79%).
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
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-BCCAB- dayA · copsetrees · rememberB · newC · throughC · awayA · decemberB · round
- 2 A-BCCAB- restA · me · greetingB · mustC · dustC · zestA · repeatingB · round
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| WHEN the spring comes round, and a certain day | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Looks out from the brume by the eastern copsetrees | 11 | ·······/˘·· |
| And says, Remember, | 5 | ··˘/˘ |
| I begin again, as if it were new, | 10 | ·˘/˘/····· |
| A day of like date I once lived through, | 9 | ········· |
| Whiling it hour by hour away; | 8 | /˘·/·/˘/ |
| So shall I do till my December, | 9 | ······˘/˘ |
| When spring comes round. | 4 | ···· |
| I take my holiday then and my rest | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Away from the dun life here about me, | 10 | ˘/········ |
| Old hours re-greeting | 6 | ·/˘·/˘ |
| With the quiet sense that bring they must | 8 | ··/····· |
| Such throbs as at first, till I house with dust, | 10 | ·········· |
| And in the numbness my heartsome zest | 9 | ···/˘·/˘· |
| For things that were, be past repeating | 9 | ······˘/˘ |
| When spring comes round. | 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.