II the Irony
’Tis the morrow; the fog hangs thicker,The postman nears and goes:A letter is brought whose lines discloseBy the firelight flickerHis hand, whom the worm now knows:
Fresh—firm—penned in highest feather—Page-full of his hoped return,And of home-planned jaunts by brake and burnIn the summer weather,And of new love that they would learn.
Words in this poem
- postman n.
- A post or courier; a letter carrier.
- flicker v. i.
- To flutter; to flap the wings without flying. [OE. flikeren, flekeren, to flutter, AS. flicerian, flicorian, cf. D. flikkeren to sparkle. Flacker.]
- penned a.
- Winged; having plumes.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
II the Irony 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, II the Irony, in Poems of the Past and the Present (1901), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3168, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hardy-past-and-present/ii-the-irony.html, id L16859.
Form and metre
II the Irony is 10 lines in 2 stanzas of 5 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABBAB. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 79%). 87% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.7 syllables. 4 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 30% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
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 ABBAB thickerA · goesB · discloseB · flickerA · knowsB
- 2 ABBAB featherA · returnB · burnB · weatherA · learnB
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| ’Tis the morrow; the fog hangs thicker, | 9 | ··/˘···/˘ |
| The postman nears and goes: | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| A letter is brought whose lines disclose | 9 | ·/˘····˘/ |
| By the firelight flicker | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| His hand, whom the worm now knows: | 7 | ······· |
| Fresh—firm—penned in highest feather— | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| Page-full of his hoped return, | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| And of home-planned jaunts by brake and burn | 9 | ········· |
| In the summer weather, | 6 | ··/˘/˘ |
| And of new love that they would learn. | 8 | ········ |
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.