The Nettles
THIS, then, is the grave of my son,Whose heart she won! And nettles growUpon his mound; and she lives just below.
How he upbraided me, and left,And our lives were cleft, because I saidShe was hard, unfeeling, caring but to wed.
Well, to see this sight I have fared these miles,And her firelight smiles from her window there,Whom he left his mother to cherish with tender care!
It is enough. I’ll turn and go;Yes, nettles grow where lone lies he,Who spurned me for seeing what he could not see.
Words in this poem
- lone n.
- A lane. See Loanin.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Nettles 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 Nettles, in Moments of Vision and Miscellaneous Verses (1917), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3255, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hardy-moments-of-vision/the-nettles.html, id L24209.
Form and metre
The Nettles is 12 lines in 4 stanzas of 3 lines each. It is in rhyming couplets, 67% of the lines: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 82%).
See other poems in heroic couplets, 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 -AA son · growA · belowA
- 2 -AA left · saidA · wedA
- 3 -AA miles · thereA · careA
- 4 -AA go · heA · seeA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| THIS, then, is the grave of my son, | 8 | ········ |
| Whose heart she won! And nettles grow | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Upon his mound; and she lives just below. | 10 | ·········· |
| How he upbraided me, and left, | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| And our lives were cleft, because I said | 9 | ·/······· |
| She was hard, unfeeling, caring but to wed. | 11 | ···˘/˘/˘··· |
| Well, to see this sight I have fared these miles, | 10 | ·········· |
| And her firelight smiles from her window there, | 11 | ········/˘· |
| Whom he left his mother to cherish with tender care! | 13 | ····/˘·/˘·/˘· |
| It is enough. I’ll turn and go; | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| Yes, nettles grow where lone lies he, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Who spurned me for seeing what he could not see. | 10 | ····/····· |
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.