The Coquette, and After (Triolets) II
At last one pays the penalty—The woman—women always do.My farce, I found, was tragedyAt last!—One pays the penaltyWith interest when one, fancy-free,Learns love, learns shame . . . Of sinners twoAt last one pays the penalty—The woman—women always do!
About this text
The Coquette, and After (Triolets) 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 Coquette, and After (Triolets) 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-coquette-and-after-triolets-ii.html, id L16899.
Form and metre
The Coquette, and After (Triolets) II is 8 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%). 84% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.0 syllables. 4 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 38% 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 AB-A-BAB penaltyA · doB · tragedy · penaltyA · free · twoB · penaltyA · doB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| At last one pays the penalty— | 8 | ·····/˘˘ |
| The woman—women always do. | 8 | ·/˘/˘/·· |
| My farce, I found, was tragedy | 8 | ·····/˘˘ |
| At last!—One pays the penalty | 8 | ·····/˘˘ |
| With interest when one, fancy-free, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Learns love, learns shame . . . Of sinners two | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| At last one pays the penalty— | 8 | ·····/˘˘ |
| The woman—women always do! | 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.