By the Earth’s Corpse
“O LORD, why grievest Thou?—Since Life has ceased to beUpon this globe, now coldAs lunar land and sea,And humankind, and fowl, and furAre gone eternally,All is the same to Thee as ereThey knew mortality.”
“O Time,” replied the Lord,“Thou read’st me ill, I ween;Were all the same, I should not grieveAt that late earthly scene,Now blestly past—though planned by meWith interest close and keen!—Nay, nay: things now are not the sameAs they have earlier been.
“Written indeliblyOn my eternal mindAre all the wrongs enduredBy Earth’s poor patient kind,Which my too oft unconscious handLet enter undesigned.No god can cancel deeds foredone,Or thy old coils unwind!
“As when, in Noë’s days,I whelmed the plains with sea,So at this last, when fleshAnd herb but fossils be,And, all extinct, their piteous dustRevolves obliviously,That I made Earth, and life, and man,It still repenteth me!”
I TRAVERSED a dominionWhose spokesmen spake out strongTheir purpose and opinionThrough pulpit, press, and song.I scarce had means to note thereA large-eyed few, and dumb,Who thought not as those thought thereThat stirred the heat and hum.
Words in this poem
- eternally adv.
- In an eternal manner.
- mortality n.
- The condition or quality of being mortal; subjection to death or to the necessity of dying. [L. mortalitas: cf. F. mortalité.]
- ween v. i.
- To think; to imagine; to fancy. [OE. wenen, AS. w, fr. w hope, expectation, opinion; akin to D. waan, OFries. w, OS. & OHG. wan, G. wahn delusion, Icel. van hope, expectation, Goth. w, and D. w]
- scarce a.
- Not plentiful or abundant; in small quantity in proportion to the demand; not easily to be procured; rare; uncommon. [OE. scars, OF. escars, eschars, LL. scarpsus, for L. excerptus, p. p. of excerpere to pick out, and hence to contract, to shorten; ex (see Ex-) + carpere. See C]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
By the Earth’s Corpse 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, By the Earth’s Corpse, in Poems of the Past and the Present (1901), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3168, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hardy-past-and-present/by-the-earth-s-corpse.html, id L16883.
Form and metre
By the Earth’s Corpse is 40 lines in 5 stanzas of 8 lines each. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.8 syllables. 7 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 45% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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-A---- thou · beA · cold · seaA · fur · eternally · ere · mortality
- 2 -A-A-A-- lord · weenA · grieve · sceneA · me · keenA · same · been
- 3 -A-A-A-A indelibly · mindA · endured · kindA · hand · undesignedA · foredone · unwindA
- 4 -A-A---A days · seaA · flesh · beA · dust · obliviously · man · meA
- 5 ABABCDCD dominionA · strongB · opinionA · songB · thereC · dumbD · thereC · humD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| “O LORD, why grievest Thou?— | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Since Life has ceased to be | 6 | ······ |
| Upon this globe, now cold | 6 | ······ |
| As lunar land and sea, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| And humankind, and fowl, and fur | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Are gone eternally, | 6 | ··˘/˘˘ |
| All is the same to Thee as ere | 8 | ········ |
| They knew mortality.” | 6 | ··˘/˘˘ |
| “O Time,” replied the Lord, | 6 | ··˘/·· |
| “Thou read’st me ill, I ween; | 6 | ······ |
| Were all the same, I should not grieve | 8 | ········ |
| At that late earthly scene, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Now blestly past—though planned by me | 8 | ········ |
| With interest close and keen!— | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Nay, nay: things now are not the same | 8 | ········ |
| As they have earlier been. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| “Written indelibly | 6 | /˘˘/˘˘ |
| On my eternal mind | 6 | ··˘/˘· |
| Are all the wrongs endured | 6 | ····˘/ |
| By Earth’s poor patient kind, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Which my too oft unconscious hand | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Let enter undesigned. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| No god can cancel deeds foredone, | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| Or thy old coils unwind! | 6 | ····˘/ |
| “As when, in Noë’s days, | 5 | ····· |
| I whelmed the plains with sea, | 6 | ······ |
| So at this last, when flesh | 6 | ······ |
| And herb but fossils be, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| And, all extinct, their piteous dust | 9 | ··˘/·/˘˘· |
| Revolves obliviously, | 6 | ˘/···· |
| That I made Earth, and life, and man, | 8 | ········ |
| It still repenteth me!” | 6 | ··˘/˘· |
| I TRAVERSED a dominion | 7 | ·/˘·˘/˘ |
| Whose spokesmen spake out strong | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Their purpose and opinion | 7 | ·/˘·˘/˘ |
| Through pulpit, press, and song. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| I scarce had means to note there | 7 | ······· |
| A large-eyed few, and dumb, | 6 | ······ |
| Who thought not as those thought there | 7 | ······· |
| That stirred the heat and hum. | 6 | ······ |
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.