A Broken Appointment
YOU did not come,And marching Time drew on, and wore me numb.—Yet less for loss of your dear presence thereThan that I thus found lacking in your makeThat high compassion which can overbearReluctance for pure lovingkindness’ sakeGrieved I, when, as the hope-hour stroked its sum,You did not come.
You love not me,And love alone can lend you loyalty;—I know and knew it. But, unto the storeOf human deeds divine in all but name,Was it not worth a little hour or moreTo add yet this: Once, you, a woman, cameTo soothe a time-torn man; even though it beYou love not me?
Words in this poem
- overbear v. t.
- To bear down or carry down, as by excess of weight, power, force, etc.; to overcome; to suppress.
- soothe v. t.
- To assent to as true. Testament of Love. [Originally, to assent to as true; OE. so to verify, AS. ges to prove the truth of, to bear witness. See Sooth, a.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Broken Appointment is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems of the Past and the Present, Project Gutenberg ebook #3168; 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, A Broken Appointment, in Poems of the Past and the Present (1901), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3168, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hardy-past-and-present/a-broken-appointment.html, id L16894.
Form and metre
A Broken Appointment is 16 lines in 2 stanzas of 8 lines each. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%). 99% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.4 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 50% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See 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-B-BAA comeA · numbA · there · makeB · overbear · sakeB · sumA · comeA
- 2 A-BCBCAA meA · loyalty · storeB · nameC · moreB · cameC · beA · meA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| YOU did not come, | 4 | ···· |
| And marching Time drew on, and wore me numb.— | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Yet less for loss of your dear presence there | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Than that I thus found lacking in your make | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| That high compassion which can overbear | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| Reluctance for pure lovingkindness’ sake | 9 | ˘/˘··/˘˘· |
| Grieved I, when, as the hope-hour stroked its sum, | 10 | ······/··· |
| You did not come. | 4 | ···· |
| You love not me, | 4 | ···· |
| And love alone can lend you loyalty; | 10 | ··˘/···/˘˘ |
| —I know and knew it. But, unto the store | 10 | ·········· |
| Of human deeds divine in all but name, | 10 | ·/˘·˘/···· |
| Was it not worth a little hour or more | 10 | ·····/˘/·· |
| To add yet this: Once, you, a woman, came | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| To soothe a time-torn man; even though it be | 10 | ······/··· |
| You love not me? | 4 | ···· |
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.