To Life
O LIFE with the sad seared face,I weary of seeing thee,And thy draggled cloak, and thy hobbling pace,And thy too-forced pleasantry!
I know what thou would’st tellOf Death, Time, Destiny—I have known it long, and know, too, wellWhat it all means for me.
But canst thou not arrayThyself in rare disguise,And feign like truth, for one mad day,That Earth is Paradise?
I’ll tune me to the mood,And mumm with thee till eve;And maybe what as interludeI feign, I shall believe!
Words in this poem
- seared a.
- Scorched; cauterized; hence, figuratively, insensible; not susceptible to moral influences.
- mumm v. i.
- To sport or make diversion in a mask or disguise; to mask. [D. mimmen to mask, mom a mask; akin to G. mumme disguise; prob. of imitative origin, and akin to E. mum, mumble, in allusion to the indistinctness of speech occ]
- maybe adv.
- Perhaps; possibly; peradventure. [For it may be.]
- 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,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To Life 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 Life, 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-life.html, id L16875.
Form and metre
To Life is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is short measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 82%). 93% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.9 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 25% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in short measure.
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 A-A- faceA · thee · paceA · pleasantry
- 2 A-A- tellA · destiny · wellA · me
- 3 A-A- arrayA · disguise · dayA · paradise
- 4 ABAB moodA · eveB · interludeA · believeB
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 short measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| O LIFE with the sad seared face, | 7 | ······· |
| I weary of seeing thee, | 6 | ·/˘·/· |
| And thy draggled cloak, and thy hobbling pace, | 9 | ······/˘· |
| And thy too-forced pleasantry! | 7 | ····/˘˘ |
| I know what thou would’st tell | 6 | ······ |
| Of Death, Time, Destiny— | 6 | ···/˘˘ |
| I have known it long, and know, too, well | 9 | ········· |
| What it all means for me. | 6 | ······ |
| But canst thou not array | 6 | ····˘/ |
| Thyself in rare disguise, | 6 | ˘/··˘/ |
| And feign like truth, for one mad day, | 8 | ········ |
| That Earth is Paradise? | 6 | ···/˘· |
| I’ll tune me to the mood, | 6 | ······ |
| And mumm with thee till eve; | 6 | ······ |
| And maybe what as interlude | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| I feign, I shall believe! | 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.