The Peace-Offering
IT was but a little thing,Yet I knew it meant to meEase from what had given a stingTo the very birdsingingLatterly.
But I would not welcome it;And for all I then declinedO the regrettings infiniteWhen the night-processions flitThrough the mind!
Words in this poem
- latterly adv.
- Lately; of late; recently; at a later, as distinguished from a former, period.
- flit a.
- Nimble; quick; swift. See Fleet.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Peace-Offering 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 Peace-Offering, in Moments of Vision and Miscellaneous Verses (1917), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3255, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hardy-moments-of-vision/the-peace-offering.html, id L24139.
Form and metre
The Peace-Offering is 10 lines in 2 stanzas of 5 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 83%).
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
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-AA- thingA · me · stingA · birdsingingA · latterly
- 2 ABAAB itA · declinedB · infiniteA · flitA · mindB
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| IT was but a little thing, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Yet I knew it meant to me | 7 | ······· |
| Ease from what had given a sting | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| To the very birdsinging | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Latterly. | 3 | /˘˘ |
| But I would not welcome it; | 7 | ····/˘· |
| And for all I then declined | 8 | ·····˘/˘ |
| O the regrettings infinite | 8 | ··˘/˘/˘˘ |
| When the night-processions flit | 7 | ···˘/˘· |
| Through the mind! | 3 | ··· |
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.