His Immortality
I SAW a dead man’s finer partShining within each faithful heartOf those bereft. Then said I: “This must beHis immortality.”
I looked there as the seasons wore,And still his soul continuously upboreIts life in theirs. But less its shine excelledThan when I first beheld.
His fellow-yearsmen passed, and thenIn later hearts I looked for him again;And found him—shrunk, alas! into a thinAnd spectral mannikin.
Lastly I ask—now old and chill—If aught of him remain unperished still;And find, in me alone, a feeble spark,Dying amid the dark.
Words in this poem
- lastly adv.
- In the last place; in conclusion.
- aught n.
- Property; possession. [AS. , fr. agan to own, p. p. ahte.]
- amid prep.
- In the midst or middle of; surrounded or encompassed by; among. [OE. amidde, amiddes, on midden, AS. on middan, in the middle, fr. midde the middle. The s is an adverbial ending, originally marking the genitive; the t is a la]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
His Immortality 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, His Immortality, in Poems of the Past and the Present (1901), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3168, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hardy-past-and-present/his-immortality.html, id L16905.
Form and metre
His Immortality is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is AABB, complete in 2 of its 4 stanzas. 92% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.3 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 44% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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-- partA · heartA · be · immortality
- 2 AABB woreA · upboreA · excelledB · beheldB
- 3 AA-- thenA · againA · thin · mannikin
- 4 AABB chillA · stillA · sparkB · darkB
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| I SAW a dead man’s finer part | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Shining within each faithful heart | 8 | /˘···/˘· |
| Of those bereft. Then said I: “This must be | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| His immortality.” | 6 | ··˘/˘˘ |
| I looked there as the seasons wore, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And still his soul continuously upbore | 9 | ····˘/˘·· |
| Its life in theirs. But less its shine excelled | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Than when I first beheld. | 6 | ····˘/ |
| His fellow-yearsmen passed, and then | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| In later hearts I looked for him again; | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| And found him—shrunk, alas! into a thin | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| And spectral mannikin. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Lastly I ask—now old and chill— | 8 | /˘······ |
| If aught of him remain unperished still; | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| And find, in me alone, a feeble spark, | 10 | ····˘/·/˘· |
| Dying amid the dark. | 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.