The Tree and the Lady
I HAVE done all I couldFor that lady I knew! Through the heats I have shaded her,Drawn to her songsters when summer has jaded her,Home from the heath or the wood.
At the mirth-time of May,When my shadow first lured her, I’d donned my new braveryOf greenth: ’twas my all. Now I shiver in slavery,Icicles grieving me gray.
Plumed to every twig’s endI could tempt her chair under me. Much did I treasure herDuring those days she had nothing to pleasure her;Mutely she used me as friend.
I’m a skeleton now,And she’s gone, craving warmth. The rime sticks like a skin to me;Through me Arcturus peers; Nor’lights shoot into me;Gone is she, scorning my bough!
Words in this poem
- greenth n.
- The state or quality of being green; verdure. [Cf. Growth.]
- mutely adv.
- Without uttering words or sounds; in a mute manner; silently.
- rime n.
- A rent or long aperture; a chink; a fissure; a crack. Sir T. [L. rima.]
- arcturus n.
- A fixed star of the first magnitude in the constellation Boötes. [L. Arcturus, Gr. Arctic.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Tree and the Lady 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 Tree and the Lady, in Moments of Vision and Miscellaneous Verses (1917), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3255, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hardy-moments-of-vision/the-tree-and-the-lady.html, id L24225.
Form and metre
The Tree and the Lady is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABBA. 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 ABBA couldA · herB · herB · woodA
- 2 ABBA mayA · braveryB · slaveryB · grayA
- 3 ABBA endA · herB · herB · friendA
- 4 ABBA nowA · meB · meB · boughA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I HAVE done all I could | 6 | ······ |
| For that lady I knew! Through the heats I have shaded her, | 14 | ··/˘·······/˘· |
| Drawn to her songsters when summer has jaded her, | 12 | ······/˘·/˘· |
| Home from the heath or the wood. | 7 | ······· |
| At the mirth-time of May, | 6 | ······ |
| When my shadow first lured her, I’d donned my new bravery | 13 | ··/········/˘ |
| Of greenth: ’twas my all. Now I shiver in slavery, | 12 | ·······/˘·/˘ |
| Icicles grieving me gray. | 7 | /˘˘/˘·· |
| Plumed to every twig’s end | 7 | ··/˘˘·· |
| I could tempt her chair under me. Much did I treasure her | 14 | ···········/˘· |
| During those days she had nothing to pleasure her; | 12 | /˘····/˘·/˘· |
| Mutely she used me as friend. | 7 | /˘····· |
| I’m a skeleton now, | 6 | ··/˘˘· |
| And she’s gone, craving warmth. The rime sticks like a skin to me; | 14 | ···/˘········· |
| Through me Arcturus peers; Nor’lights shoot into me; | 12 | ···/˘······· |
| Gone is she, scorning my bough! | 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.