Sapphic Fragment
DEAD shalt thou lie; and noughtBe told of thee or thought,For thou hast plucked not of the Muses’ tree:And even in Hades’ hallsAmidst thy fellow-thrallsNo friendly shade thy shade shall company!
(After passing Sirmione, April 1887.)
SIRMIO, thou dearest dear of strandsThat Neptune strokes in lake and sea,With what high joy from stranger landsDoth thy old friend set foot on thee!Yea, barely seems it true to meThat no Bithynia holds me now,But calmly and assuringlyAround me stretchest homely Thou.
Is there a scene more sweet than whenOur clinging cares are undercast,And, worn by alien moils and men,The long untrodden sill repassed,We press the pined for couch at last,And find a full repayment there?Then hail, sweet Sirmio; thou that wast,And art, mine own unrivalled Fair!
Words in this poem
- shalt
- 2d per. sing. of Shall.
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
- amidst 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]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- homely a.
- Belonging to, or having the characteristics of, home; domestic; familiar; intimate. [From Home, n.]
- undercast v. t.
- To cast under or beneath.
- wast
- The second person singular of the verb be, in the indicative mood, imperfect tense; -- now used only in solemn or poetical style.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sapphic Fragment 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, Sapphic Fragment, in Poems of the Past and the Present (1901), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3168, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hardy-past-and-present/sapphic-fragment.html, id L16943.
Form and metre
Sapphic Fragment is 23 lines in 4 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.8 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 35% 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 AA-BB- noughtA · thoughtA · tree · hallsB · thrallsB · company
- 3 ABABBC-C strandsA · seaB · landsA · theeB · meB · nowC · assuringly · thouC
- 4 ABA-BCBC whenA · undercastB · menA · repassed · lastB · thereC · wastB · fairC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| DEAD shalt thou lie; and nought | 6 | ······ |
| Be told of thee or thought, | 6 | ······ |
| For thou hast plucked not of the Muses’ tree: | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| And even in Hades’ halls | 7 | ·/˘·/˘· |
| Amidst thy fellow-thralls | 6 | ˘/·/˘· |
| No friendly shade thy shade shall company! | 9 | ·/˘····/˘ |
| (After passing Sirmione, April 1887.) | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| SIRMIO, thou dearest dear of strands | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| That Neptune strokes in lake and sea, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| With what high joy from stranger lands | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Doth thy old friend set foot on thee! | 8 | ········ |
| Yea, barely seems it true to me | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| That no Bithynia holds me now, | 8 | ········ |
| But calmly and assuringly | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Around me stretchest homely Thou. | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Is there a scene more sweet than when | 8 | ········ |
| Our clinging cares are undercast, | 8 | //˘····· |
| And, worn by alien moils and men, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The long untrodden sill repassed, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| We press the pined for couch at last, | 8 | ········ |
| And find a full repayment there? | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| Then hail, sweet Sirmio; thou that wast, | 8 | ········ |
| And art, mine own unrivalled Fair! | 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.