The Self-Unseeing
HERE is the ancient floor,Footworn and hollowed and thin,Here was the former doorWhere the dead feet walked in.
She sat here in her chair,Smiling into the fire;He who played stood there,Bowing it higher and higher.
Childlike, I danced in a dream;Blessings emblazoned that dayEverything glowed with a gleam;Yet we were looking away!
Words in this poem
- footworn a.
- Worn by, or weared in, the feet; as, a footworn path; a footworn traveler.
- childlike a.
- Resembling a child, or that which belongs to children; becoming a child; meek; submissive; dutiful.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Self-Unseeing 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 Self-Unseeing, 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-self-unseeing.html, id L16935.
Form and metre
The Self-Unseeing is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. 74% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.0 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 17% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 floorA · thinB · doorA · inB
- 2 ABAB chairA · fireB · thereA · higherB
- 3 ABAB dreamA · dayB · gleamA · awayB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| HERE is the ancient floor, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Footworn and hollowed and thin, | 8 | /˘·/˘˘·· |
| Here was the former door | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Where the dead feet walked in. | 7 | ·····˘· |
| She sat here in her chair, | 6 | ······ |
| Smiling into the fire; | 7 | /˘···/˘ |
| He who played stood there, | 5 | ····· |
| Bowing it higher and higher. | 8 | /˘·/˘·/˘ |
| Childlike, I danced in a dream; | 8 | /···˘··· |
| Blessings emblazoned that day | 8 | /˘˘/˘˘·· |
| Everything glowed with a gleam; | 8 | /˘··˘··· |
| Yet we were looking away! | 7 | ···/˘˘/ |
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.