On an Invitation to the United States I
MY ardours for emprize nigh lostSince Life has bared its bones to me,I shrink to seek a modern coastWhose riper times have yet to be;Where the new regions claim them freeFrom that long drip of human tearsWhich peoples old in tragedyHave left upon the centuried years.
Words in this poem
- drip v. i.
- To fall in drops; as, water drips from the eaves. [Akin to LG. drippen, Dan. dryppe, from a noun. See Drop.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
On an Invitation to the United States I 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, On an Invitation to the United States I, in Poems of the Past and the Present (1901), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3168, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hardy-past-and-present/on-an-invitation-to-the-united-states-i.html, id L16868.
Form and metre
On an Invitation to the United States I is 8 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.1 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 62% 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 -A-AAB-B lost · meA · coast · beA · freeA · tearsB · tragedy · yearsB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| MY ardours for emprize nigh lost | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Since Life has bared its bones to me, | 8 | ········ |
| I shrink to seek a modern coast | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Whose riper times have yet to be; | 8 | ········ |
| Where the new regions claim them free | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| From that long drip of human tears | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Which peoples old in tragedy | 8 | ·/˘··/˘˘ |
| Have left upon the centuried years. | 9 | ·····˘/˘· |
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.