To an Unborn Pauper Child
BREATHE not, hid Heart: cease silently,And though thy birth-hour beckons thee,Sleep the long sleep:The Doomsters heapTravails and teens around us here,And Time-wraiths turn our songsingings to fear.
Hark, how the peoples surge and sigh,And laughters fail, and greetings die:Hopes dwindle; yea,Faiths waste away,Affections and enthusiasms numb;Thou canst not mend these things if thou dost come.
Had I the ear of wombèd soulsEre their terrestrial chart unrolls,And thou wert freeTo cease, or be,Then would I tell thee all I know,And put it to thee: Wilt thou take Life so?
Vain vow! No hint of mine may henceTo theeward fly: to thy locked senseExplain none canLife’s pending plan:Thou wilt thy ignorant entry makeThough skies spout fire and blood and nations quake.
Fain would I, dear, find some shut plotOf earth’s wide wold for thee, where notOne tear, one qualm,Should break the calm.But I am weak as thou and bare;No man can change the common lot to rare.
Must come and bide. And such are we—Unreasoning, sanguine, visionary—That I can hopeHealth, love, friends, scopeIn full for thee; can dream thou’lt findJoys seldom yet attained by humankind!
Words in this poem
- teens n.
- The years of one's age having the termination -teen, beginning with thirteen and ending with nineteen; as, a girl in her teens. [See Ten.]
- dwindle v. i.
- To diminish; to become less; to shrink; to waste or consume away; to become degenerate; to fall away. [From OE. dwinen to languish, waste away, AS. dwinan; akin to LG. dwinen, D. dwijnen to vanish, Icel. dvina to cease, dwindle, Sw. tvina; of uncertain origin. Th]
- pending a.
- Not yet decided; in continuance; in suspense; as, a pending suit. [L. pendere to hang, to be suspended. Cf. Pendent.]
- fain v. t.
- To be glad ; to wish or desire.
- wold n.
- A wood; a forest. [OE. wold, wald, AS. weald, wald, a wood, forest; akin to OFries. & OS. wald, D. woud, G. wald, Icel. völlr, a field, and probably to Gr. va a garden, inclosure.]
- qualm n.
- Sickness; disease; pestilence; death. [AS. cwealm death, slaughter, pestilence, akin to OS. & OHG. qualm. See Quail to cower.]
- bide v. i.
- To dwell; to inhabit; to abide; to stay. [OE. biden, AS. bidan; akin to OHG. bitan, Goth. beidan, Icel. bi; perh. orig., to wait with trust, and akin to bid. See Bid, v. t., and cf. Abide.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To an Unborn Pauper Child 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, To an Unborn Pauper Child, in Poems of the Past and the Present (1901), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3168, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hardy-past-and-present/to-an-unborn-pauper-child.html, id L16885.
Form and metre
To an Unborn Pauper Child is 36 lines in 6 stanzas of 6 lines each. The rhyme scheme is AABBCC, complete in 4 of its 6 stanzas. 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.1 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 33% 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 --AABB silently · thee · sleepA · heapA · hereB · fearB
- 2 AABBCC sighA · dieA · yeaB · awayB · numbC · comeC
- 3 AABBCC soulsA · unrollsA · freeB · beB · knowC · soC
- 4 AABBCC henceA · senseA · canB · planB · makeC · quakeC
- 5 AABBCC plotA · notA · qualmB · calmB · bareC · rareC
- 6 --AABB we · visionary · hopeA · scopeA · findB · humankindB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| BREATHE not, hid Heart: cease silently, | 8 | ·····/˘˘ |
| And though thy birth-hour beckons thee, | 8 | ····//˘· |
| Sleep the long sleep: | 4 | ···· |
| The Doomsters heap | 4 | ···· |
| Travails and teens around us here, | 8 | ˘/······ |
| And Time-wraiths turn our songsingings to fear. | 10 | ····/····· |
| Hark, how the peoples surge and sigh, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And laughters fail, and greetings die: | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Hopes dwindle; yea, | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Faiths waste away, | 4 | ··˘/ |
| Affections and enthusiasms numb; | 10 | ˘/˘·˘/˘·˘· |
| Thou canst not mend these things if thou dost come. | 10 | ·········· |
| Had I the ear of wombèd souls | 7 | ······· |
| Ere their terrestrial chart unrolls, | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| And thou wert free | 4 | ···· |
| To cease, or be, | 4 | ···· |
| Then would I tell thee all I know, | 8 | ········ |
| And put it to thee: Wilt thou take Life so? | 10 | ·········· |
| Vain vow! No hint of mine may hence | 8 | ········ |
| To theeward fly: to thy locked sense | 8 | ········ |
| Explain none can | 4 | ˘/·· |
| Life’s pending plan: | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Thou wilt thy ignorant entry make | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Though skies spout fire and blood and nations quake. | 10 | ···/···/˘· |
| Fain would I, dear, find some shut plot | 8 | ········ |
| Of earth’s wide wold for thee, where not | 8 | ········ |
| One tear, one qualm, | 4 | ···· |
| Should break the calm. | 4 | ···· |
| But I am weak as thou and bare; | 8 | ········ |
| No man can change the common lot to rare. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Must come and bide. And such are we— | 8 | ········ |
| Unreasoning, sanguine, visionary— | 9 | ˘/˘/˘/˘·˘ |
| That I can hope | 4 | ···· |
| Health, love, friends, scope | 4 | ···· |
| In full for thee; can dream thou’lt find | 8 | ········ |
| Joys seldom yet attained by humankind! | 10 | ·/˘·˘/·/˘· |
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.