The Comet at Yalbury or Yell’Ham II
It will return long years hence, whenAs now its strange swift shineWill fall on Yell’ham; but not thenOn that sweet form of thine.
About this text
The Comet at Yalbury or Yell’Ham II 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, The Comet at Yalbury or Yell’Ham II, in Poems of the Past and the Present (1901), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3168, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hardy-past-and-present/the-comet-at-yalbury-or-yell-ham-ii.html, id L16919.
Form and metre
The Comet at Yalbury or Yell’Ham II is 4 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABAB. The lines average 7.0 syllables.
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 ABAB whenA · shineB · thenA · thineB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| It will return long years hence, when | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| As now its strange swift shine | 6 | ······ |
| Will fall on Yell’ham; but not then | 8 | ········ |
| On that sweet form of thine. | 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.