The Statue of Liberty
THIS statue of Liberty, busy man,Here erect in the city square,I have watched while your scrubbings, this early morning,Strangely wistful,And half tristful,Have turned her from foul to fair;
With your bucket of water, and mop, and brush,Bringing her out of the grimeThat has smeared her during the smokes of winterWith such glumnessIn her dumbness,And aged her before her time.
You have washed her down with motherly care—Head, shoulders, arm, and foot,To the very hem of the robes that drape her—All expertlyAnd alertly,Till a long stream, black with soot,
Flows over the pavement to the road,And her shape looms pure as snow:I read you are hired by the City guardians—May be yearly,Or once merely—To treat the statues so?
“Oh, I’m not hired by the CouncilmenTo cleanse the statues here.I do this one as a self-willed duty,Not as paid to,Or at all made to,But because the doing is dear.”
Ah, then I hail you brother and friend!Liberty’s knight divine.What you have done would have been my doing,Yea, most verily,Well, and thoroughly,Had but your courage been mine!
“Oh I care not for Liberty’s mould,Liberty charms not me;What’s Freedom but an idler’s vision,Vain, pernicious,Often vicious,Of things that cannot be!
“Memory it is that brings me to this—Of a daughter—my one sweet own.She grew a famous carver’s model,One of the fairestAnd of the rarest:—She sat for the figure as shown.
“But alas, she died in this distant placeBefore I was warned to betakeMyself to her side! . . . And in love of my darling,In love of the fame of her,And the good name of her,I do this for her sake.”
Answer I gave not. Of that formThe carver was I at his side;His child, my model, held so saintly,Grand in feature,Gross in nature,In the dens of vice had died.
(Lover’s Ditty)
I think of the slope where the rabbits fed,Of the periwinks’ rockwork lair,Of the fuchsias ringing their bells of red—And the something else seen there.
Between the blooms where the sod basked bright,By the bobbing fuchsia trees,Was another and yet more eyesome sight—The sight that richened these.
I shall seek those beauties in the spring,When the days are fit and fair,But only as foils to the one more thingThat also will flower there!
Words in this poem 18
- strangely adv.
- As something foreign, or not one's own; in a manner adapted to something foreign and strange.
- 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.]
- tristful a.
- Sad; sorrowful; gloomy.
- grime n.
- Foul matter; dirt, rubbed in; sullying blackness, deeply ingrained. [Cf. Dan. grim, griim, lampblack, soot, grime, Icel. gr mask, sort of hood, OD. grijmsel, grimsel, soot, smut, and E. grimace.]
- glumness n.
- Moodiness; sullenness.
- dumbness n.
- The quality or state of being dumb; muteness; silence; inability to speak.
- drape v. t.
- To cover or adorn with drapery or folds of cloth, or as with drapery; as, to drape a bust, a building, etc. [F. draper, fr. drap cloth. See 3d Drab.]
- expertly adv.
- In a skillful or dexterous manner; adroitly; with readiness and accuracy.
- alertly adv.
- In an alert manner; nimbly.
- mould n.
- Crumbling, soft, friable earth; esp., earth containing the remains or constituents of organic matter, and suited to the growth of plants; soil. [OE. molde, AS. molde; akin to D. mul, G. mull, mulm, OHG. molt, molta, Icel. mold, Dan. muld, Sw. mull, Goth. mulda, and E. meal flour. See Meal, and cf. Mole a]
- carver n.
- One who carves; one who shapes or fashions by carving, or as by carving; esp. one who carves decorative forms, architectural adornments, etc.
- betake v. t.
- To take or seize. [Pref. be- + take.]
- saintly a.
- Like a saint; becoming a holy person.
- ditty n.
- A saying or utterance; especially, one that is short and frequently repeated; a theme. [OE. dite, OF. ditié, fr. L. dictatum, p. p. neut. of dictare to say often, dictate, compose. See Dictate, v. t.]
- rockwork n.
- Stonework in which the surface is left broken and rough.
- lair n.
- A place in which to lie or rest; especially, the bed or couch of a wild beast. [OE. leir, AS. leger; akin to D. leger, G. lager couch, lair, OHG. laga, Goth. ligrs, and to E. lie. See Lie to be prostrate, and cf. Layer, Leaguer.]
- fuchsia n.
- A genus of flowering plants having elegant drooping flowers, with four sepals, four petals, eight stamens, and a single pistil. [NL. Named after Leonard Fuchs, a German botanist.]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Statue of Liberty 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 Statue of Liberty, in Moments of Vision and Miscellaneous Verses (1917), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3255, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hardy-moments-of-vision/the-statue-of-liberty.html, id L24128.
Form and metre
The Statue of Liberty is 73 lines in 14 stanzas. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic trimeter.
See other poems in iambic trimeter.
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-BBA man · squareA · morning · wistfulB · tristfulB · fairA
- 2 -A-BBA brush · grimeA · winter · glumnessB · dumbnessB · timeA
- 3 -A---A care · footA · her · expertly · alertly · sootA
- 4 -A-BBA road · snowA · guardians · yearlyB · merelyB · soA
- 5 -A-BBA councilmen · hereA · duty · toB · toB · dearA
- 6 -A---A friend · divineA · doing · verily · thoroughly · mineA
- 7 -A-BBA mould · meA · vision · perniciousB · viciousB · beA
- 8 -A---A this · ownA · model · fairest · rarest · shownA
- 9 -A-BBA place · betakeA · darling · herB · herB · sakeA
- 10 -A---A form · sideA · saintly · feature · nature · diedA
- 12 ABAB fedA · lairB · redA · thereB
- 13 ABAB brightA · treesB · sightA · theseB
- 14 ABAB springA · fairB · thingA · thereB
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| THIS statue of Liberty, busy man, | 9 | ·/··/˘/˘· |
| Here erect in the city square, | 8 | ·˘/··/˘· |
| I have watched while your scrubbings, this early morning, | 12 | ·····/˘·/˘/˘ |
| Strangely wistful, | 4 | /˘/˘ |
| And half tristful, | 4 | ··/˘ |
| Have turned her from foul to fair; | 8 | ··˘····· |
| With your bucket of water, and mop, and brush, | 11 | ··/˘·/˘···· |
| Bringing her out of the grime | 7 | /˘····· |
| That has smeared her during the smokes of winter | 11 | ····/˘···/˘ |
| With such glumness | 4 | ··/˘ |
| In her dumbness, | 4 | ··/˘ |
| And aged her before her time. | 7 | ······· |
| You have washed her down with motherly care— | 9 | ······/˘· |
| Head, shoulders, arm, and foot, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| To the very hem of the robes that drape her— | 11 | ··/˘······· |
| All expertly | 4 | ·/˘˘ |
| And alertly, | 4 | ·˘/˘ |
| Till a long stream, black with soot, | 7 | ······· |
| Flows over the pavement to the road, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And her shape looms pure as snow: | 7 | ······· |
| I read you are hired by the City guardians— | 11 | ····/··/˘/˘ |
| May be yearly, | 4 | ··/˘ |
| Or once merely— | 4 | ··/˘ |
| To treat the statues so? | 6 | ···/·· |
| “Oh, I’m not hired by the Councilmen | 9 | ···/··/˘/ |
| To cleanse the statues here. | 6 | ···/·· |
| I do this one as a self-willed duty, | 10 | ········/˘ |
| Not as paid to, | 4 | ···· |
| Or at all made to, | 5 | ····· |
| But because the doing is dear.” | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| Ah, then I hail you brother and friend! | 9 | ·····/˘·· |
| Liberty’s knight divine. | 6 | /˘˘·˘/ |
| What you have done would have been my doing, | 9 | ········/ |
| Yea, most verily, | 5 | ··/˘˘ |
| Well, and thoroughly, | 5 | ··/˘˘ |
| Had but your courage been mine! | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| “Oh I care not for Liberty’s mould, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Liberty charms not me; | 6 | /˘˘··· |
| What’s Freedom but an idler’s vision, | 9 | ·/˘··/˘/˘ |
| Vain, pernicious, | 4 | ·˘/˘ |
| Often vicious, | 4 | /˘/˘ |
| Of things that cannot be! | 6 | ···/˘· |
| “Memory it is that brings me to this— | 9 | /˘······· |
| Of a daughter—my one sweet own. | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| She grew a famous carver’s model, | 9 | ···/˘/˘/˘ |
| One of the fairest | 5 | ···/˘ |
| And of the rarest:— | 5 | ···/˘ |
| She sat for the figure as shown. | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| “But alas, she died in this distant place | 10 | ·˘/····/˘· |
| Before I was warned to betake | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Myself to her side! . . . And in love of my darling, | 12 | ·/········/˘ |
| In love of the fame of her, | 7 | ······· |
| And the good name of her, | 6 | ······ |
| I do this for her sake.” | 6 | ······ |
| Answer I gave not. Of that form | 8 | /˘······ |
| The carver was I at his side; | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| His child, my model, held so saintly, | 9 | ···/˘··/˘ |
| Grand in feature, | 4 | ··/˘ |
| Gross in nature, | 4 | ··/˘ |
| In the dens of vice had died. | 7 | ······· |
| (Lover’s Ditty) | 4 | /˘/˘ |
| I think of the slope where the rabbits fed, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Of the periwinks’ rockwork lair, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Of the fuchsias ringing their bells of red— | 10 | ··/˘/˘···· |
| And the something else seen there. | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Between the blooms where the sod basked bright, | 9 | ········· |
| By the bobbing fuchsia trees, | 8 | ··/˘/˘˘· |
| Was another and yet more eyesome sight— | 10 | ·˘/˘······ |
| The sight that richened these. | 7 | ·····˘· |
| I shall seek those beauties in the spring, | 9 | ····/˘··· |
| When the days are fit and fair, | 7 | ······· |
| But only as foils to the one more thing | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| That also will flower there! | 7 | ·/˘·/˘· |
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