The Something That Saved Him
IT was whenWhirls of thick waters laved meAgain and again,That something arose and saved me;Yea, it was then.
In that dayUnseeing the azure went IOn my way,And to white winter bent I,Knowing no May.
Reft of renown,Under the night clouds beatingUp and down,In my needfulness greetingCit and clown.
Long there had beenMuch of a murky colourIn the scene,Dull prospects meeting duller;Nought between.
Last, there loomedA closing-in blind alley,Though there boomedA feeble summons to rallyWhere it gloomed.
The clock rang;The hour brought a hand to deliver;I upsprang,And looked back at den, ditch and river,And sang.
Words in this poem
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- reft n.
- A chink; a rift. See Rift. Rom. of R.
- duller n.
- One who, or that which, dulls.
- rally v. t.
- To collect, and reduce to order, as troops dispersed or thrown into confusion; to gather again; to reunite. [OF. ralier, F. rallier, fr. L. pref. re- + ad + ligare to bind. See Ra-, and 1st Ally.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Something That Saved Him 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 Something That Saved Him, in Moments of Vision and Miscellaneous Verses (1917), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3255, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hardy-moments-of-vision/the-something-that-saved-him.html, id L24215.
Form and metre
The Something That Saved Him is 30 lines in 6 stanzas of 5 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABABA, complete in 5 of its 6 stanzas. The metre is iambic dimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%).
See other poems in iambic dimeter.
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 ABABA whenA · meB · againA · meB · thenA
- 2 ABABA dayA · iB · wayA · iB · mayA
- 3 ABABA renownA · beatingB · downA · greetingB · clownA
- 4 -ABAB been · colourA · sceneB · dullerA · betweenB
- 5 ABABA loomedA · alleyB · boomedA · rallyB · gloomedA
- 6 ABABA rangA · deliverB · upsprangA · riverB · sangA
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 dimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| IT was when | 3 | ··· |
| Whirls of thick waters laved me | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| Again and again, | 5 | ˘/·˘/ |
| That something arose and saved me; | 8 | ·/˘˘/··· |
| Yea, it was then. | 4 | ···· |
| In that day | 3 | ··· |
| Unseeing the azure went I | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| On my way, | 3 | ··· |
| And to white winter bent I, | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| Knowing no May. | 4 | /˘·· |
| Reft of renown, | 4 | ··˘/ |
| Under the night clouds beating | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Up and down, | 3 | ··· |
| In my needfulness greeting | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Cit and clown. | 3 | ··· |
| Long there had been | 4 | ···· |
| Much of a murky colour | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| In the scene, | 3 | ··· |
| Dull prospects meeting duller; | 7 | ·/˘/˘/˘ |
| Nought between. | 3 | ··· |
| Last, there loomed | 3 | ··· |
| A closing-in blind alley, | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| Though there boomed | 3 | ··· |
| A feeble summons to rally | 8 | ·/˘/˘·/˘ |
| Where it gloomed. | 3 | ··· |
| The clock rang; | 3 | ··· |
| The hour brought a hand to deliver; | 9 | ·/····˘/˘ |
| I upsprang, | 3 | ··· |
| And looked back at den, ditch and river, | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| And sang. | 2 | ·· |
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.