Logs on the Hearth a Memory of a Sister
THE fire advances along the logOf the tree we felled,Which bloomed and bore striped apples by the peckTill its last hour of bearing knelled.
The fork that first my hand would reachAnd then my footIn climbings upward inch by inch, lies nowSawn, sapless, darkening with soot.
Where the bark chars is where, one year,It was pruned, and bled—Then overgrew the wound. But now, at last,Its growings all have stagnated.
My fellow-climber rises dimFrom her chilly grave—Just as she was, her foot near mine on the bending limb,Laughing, her young brown hand awave.
Words in this poem
- sapless a.
- Destitute of sap; not juicy.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Logs on the Hearth a Memory of a Sister 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, Logs on the Hearth a Memory of a Sister, in Moments of Vision and Miscellaneous Verses (1917), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3255, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hardy-moments-of-vision/logs-on-the-hearth-a-memory-of-a-sister.html, id L24175.
Form and metre
Logs on the Hearth a Memory of a Sister is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. 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 -A-A log · felledA · peck · knelledA
- 2 -A-A reach · footA · now · sootA
- 3 -A-A year · bledA · last · stagnatedA
- 4 ABAB dimA · graveB · limbA · awaveB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| THE fire advances along the log | 9 | ·/˘/˘˘/·· |
| Of the tree we felled, | 5 | ····· |
| Which bloomed and bore striped apples by the peck | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Till its last hour of bearing knelled. | 8 | ···/·/˘· |
| The fork that first my hand would reach | 8 | ········ |
| And then my foot | 4 | ···· |
| In climbings upward inch by inch, lies now | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| Sawn, sapless, darkening with soot. | 8 | ·/˘/˘˘·· |
| Where the bark chars is where, one year, | 8 | ········ |
| It was pruned, and bled— | 5 | ····· |
| Then overgrew the wound. But now, at last, | 10 | ·········· |
| Its growings all have stagnated. | 8 | ·/˘··/·˘ |
| My fellow-climber rises dim | 8 | ·/˘/˘/˘· |
| From her chilly grave— | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Just as she was, her foot near mine on the bending limb, | 13 | ··········/˘· |
| Laughing, her young brown hand awave. | 8 | /˘······ |
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.