On Sturminster Foot-Bridge (Onomatopoeic)
RETICULATIONS creep upon the slack stream’s faceWhen the wind skims irritably past,The current clucks smartly into each hollow placeThat years of flood have scrabbled in the pier’s sodden base;The floating-lily leaves rot fast.
On a roof stand the swallows ranged in wistful waiting rows,Till they arrow off and drop like stonesAmong the eyot-withies at whose foot the river flows;And beneath the roof is she who in the dark world showsAs a lattice-gleam when midnight moans.
Words in this poem
- irritably adv.
- In an irritable manner.
- smartly adv.
- In a smart manner.
- wistful a.
- Longing; wishful; desirous. [For wishful; perhaps influenced by wistly, which is probably corrupted from OE. wisly certainly (from Icel. viss certain, akin to E. wit). See Wish.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
On Sturminster Foot-Bridge (Onomatopoeic) 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, On Sturminster Foot-Bridge (Onomatopoeic), in Moments of Vision and Miscellaneous Verses (1917), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3255, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hardy-moments-of-vision/on-sturminster-foot-bridge-onomatopoeic.html, id L24168.
Form and metre
On Sturminster Foot-Bridge (Onomatopoeic) is 10 lines in 2 stanzas of 5 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAAB. The metre is iambic hexameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 82%).
See other poems in iambic hexameter.
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 ABAAB faceA · pastB · placeA · baseA · fastB
- 2 ABAAB rowsA · stonesB · flowsA · showsA · moansB
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 hexameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| RETICULATIONS creep upon the slack stream’s face | 12 | ············ |
| When the wind skims irritably past, | 9 | ····/˘˘˘· |
| The current clucks smartly into each hollow place | 12 | ·/˘·/˘···/˘· |
| That years of flood have scrabbled in the pier’s sodden base; | 13 | ·····/˘···/˘· |
| The floating-lily leaves rot fast. | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| On a roof stand the swallows ranged in wistful waiting rows, | 14 | ·····/˘··/˘/˘· |
| Till they arrow off and drop like stones | 9 | ··/˘····· |
| Among the eyot-withies at whose foot the river flows; | 13 | ···/˘·····/˘· |
| And beneath the roof is she who in the dark world shows | 13 | ············· |
| As a lattice-gleam when midnight moans. | 9 | ··/˘··/·· |
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.