The Last Signal, (Oct. 11, 1886), a Memory of William Barnes
SILENTLY I footed by an uphill roadThat led from my abode to a spot yew-boughed;Yellowly the sun sloped low down to westward,And dark was the east with cloud.
Then, amid the shadow of that livid sad east,Where the light was least, and a gate stood wide,Something flashed the fire of the sun that was facing it,Like a brief blaze on that side.
Looking hard and harder I knew what it meant—The sudden shine sent from the livid east scene;It meant the west mirrored by the coffin of my friend there,Turning to the road from his green,
To take his last journey forth—he who in his primeTrudged so many a time from that gate athwart the land!Thus a farewell to me he signalled on his grave-way,As with a wave of his hand.
Words in this poem
- uphill adv.
- Upwards on, or as on, a hillside; as, to walk uphill.
- abode n.
- Act of waiting; delay. [OE. abad, abood, fr. abiden to abide. See Abide. For the change of vowel, cf. abode, imp. of abide.]
- amid prep.
- In the midst or middle of; surrounded or encompassed by; among. [OE. amidde, amiddes, on midden, AS. on middan, in the middle, fr. midde the middle. The s is an adverbial ending, originally marking the genitive; the t is a la]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Last Signal, (Oct. 11, 1886), a Memory of William Barnes 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, The Last Signal, (Oct. 11, 1886), a Memory of William Barnes, in Moments of Vision and Miscellaneous Verses (1917), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3255, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hardy-moments-of-vision/the-last-signal-oct-11-1886-a-memory-of-william-barnes.html, id L24155.
Form and metre
The Last Signal, (Oct. 11, 1886), a Memory of William Barnes is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is trochaic hexameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 73%).
See other poems in trochaic 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 ABAB roadA · boughedB · westwardA · cloudB
- 2 -A-A east · wideA · it · sideA
- 3 -A-A meant · sceneA · there · greenA
- 4 -A-A prime · landA · way · handA
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 trochaic hexameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| SILENTLY I footed by an uphill road | 10 | /˘·/˘··//· |
| That led from my abode to a spot yew-boughed; | 11 | ····˘/····· |
| Yellowly the sun sloped low down to westward, | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| And dark was the east with cloud. | 7 | ······· |
| Then, amid the shadow of that livid sad east, | 12 | ·˘/·/···/˘·· |
| Where the light was least, and a gate stood wide, | 10 | ·········· |
| Something flashed the fire of the sun that was facing it, | 13 | /˘··/·····/˘· |
| Like a brief blaze on that side. | 7 | ······· |
| Looking hard and harder I knew what it meant— | 11 | /˘··/˘····· |
| The sudden shine sent from the livid east scene; | 11 | ·/˘····/˘·· |
| It meant the west mirrored by the coffin of my friend there, | 14 | ····/˘··/˘···· |
| Turning to the road from his green, | 8 | /˘······ |
| To take his last journey forth—he who in his prime | 12 | ····/˘······ |
| Trudged so many a time from that gate athwart the land! | 12 | ··/·····˘/·· |
| Thus a farewell to me he signalled on his grave-way, | 13 | ···/···/˘···· |
| As with a wave of his hand. | 7 | ······· |
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.