Kingston-Maurward Ewelease
(Two who became a story)
BY the Runic StoneThey sat, where the grass sloped down,And chattered, he white-hatted, she in brown,Pink-faced, breeze-blown.
Rapt there aloneIn the transport of talking soIn such a place, there was nothing to let them knowWhat hours had flown.
And the die thrownBy them heedlessly there, the dentIt was to cut in their encompassment,Were, too, unknown.
It might have strownTheir zest with qualms to see,As in a glass, Time toss their historyFrom zone to zone!
Words in this poem
- rapt n.
- An ecstasy; a trance. Bp. Morton. [From F. rapt abduction, rape, L. raptus, fr. rapere to seize and carry off, to transport; or fr. E. rapt, a. See Rapt, a., and Rapid.]
- flown a.
- Flushed, inflated.
- dent n.
- A stroke; a blow. [A variant of Dint.]
- encompassment n.
- The act of surrounding, or the state of being surrounded; circumvention.
- 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
Kingston-Maurward Ewelease 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, Kingston-Maurward Ewelease, in Moments of Vision and Miscellaneous Verses (1917), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3255, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hardy-moments-of-vision/kingston-maurward-ewelease.html, id L24151.
Form and metre
Kingston-Maurward Ewelease is 17 lines in 5 stanzas. The rhyme scheme is ABBA, complete in 3 of its 5 stanzas. 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.
- 2 ABBA stoneA · downB · brownB · blownA
- 3 ABBA aloneA · soB · knowB · flownA
- 4 ABBA thrownA · dentB · encompassmentB · unknownA
- 5 A--A strownA · see · history · zoneA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| (Two who became a story) | 7 | ··˘/·/˘ |
| BY the Runic Stone | 5 | ··/˘· |
| They sat, where the grass sloped down, | 8 | ······˘· |
| And chattered, he white-hatted, she in brown, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Pink-faced, breeze-blown. | 4 | ···· |
| Rapt there alone | 4 | ··˘/ |
| In the transport of talking so | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| In such a place, there was nothing to let them know | 12 | ······/˘···· |
| What hours had flown. | 5 | ·/˘·· |
| And the die thrown | 4 | ···· |
| By them heedlessly there, the dent | 8 | ········ |
| It was to cut in their encompassment, | 10 | ······˘/˘˘ |
| Were, too, unknown. | 4 | ··˘/ |
| It might have strown | 4 | ···· |
| Their zest with qualms to see, | 6 | ······ |
| As in a glass, Time toss their history | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| From zone to zone! | 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.