A Poet
ATTENTIVE eyes, fantastic heed,Assessing minds, he does not need,Nor urgent writs to sup or dine,Nor pledges in the roseate wine.
For loud acclaim he does not careBy the august or rich or fair,Nor for smart pilgrims from afar,Curious on where his hauntings are.
But soon or later, when you hearThat he has doffed this wrinkled gear,Some evening, at the first star-ray,Come to his graveside, pause and say:
“Whatever the message his to tell,Two bright-souled women loved him well.”Stand and say that amid the dim:It will be praise enough for him.
Words in this poem
- dine v. i.
- To eat the principal regular meal of the day; to take dinner. [F. dîner, OF. disner, LL. disnare, contr. fr. an assumed disjunare; dis- + an assumed junare (OF. juner) to fast, for L. jejunare, fr. jejunus fasting. See Jeju]
- roseate a.
- Full of roses; rosy; as, roseate bowers. [Cf. L. roseus, rosatus, prepared from roses. See Roseal, Rose.]
- acclaim v. i.
- To shout applause.
- afar adv.
- At, to, or from a great distance; far away; -- often used with from preceding, or off following; as, he was seen from afar; I saw him afar off. [Pref. a-.(for on or of) + far.]
- curious a.
- Difficult to please or satisfy; solicitous to be correct; careful; scrupulous; nice; exact. [OF. curios, curius, F. curieux, L. curiosus careful, inquisitive, fr. cura care. See Cure.]
- amid prep.
- In the midst or middle of; surrounded or encompassed by; among. [OE. amidde, amiddes, on midden, AS. on middan, in the middle, fr. midde the middle. The s is an adverbial ending, originally marking the genitive; the t is a la]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Poet is in the public domain. This text is taken from Satires of Circumstance, Lyrics and Reveries, with Miscellaneous Pieces, Project Gutenberg ebook #2863; 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, A Poet, in Satires of Circumstance, Lyrics and Reveries (1914), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #2863, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hardy-satires/a-poet.html, id L24097.
Form and metre
A Poet is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes AABB. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%).
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 AABB heedA · needA · dineB · wineB
- 2 AABB careA · fairA · afarB · areB
- 3 AABB hearA · gearA · rayB · sayB
- 4 AABB tellA · wellA · dimB · himB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| ATTENTIVE eyes, fantastic heed, | 8 | ˘/˘·˘/˘· |
| Assessing minds, he does not need, | 8 | ˘/˘····· |
| Nor urgent writs to sup or dine, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Nor pledges in the roseate wine. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| For loud acclaim he does not care | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| By the august or rich or fair, | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| Nor for smart pilgrims from afar, | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| Curious on where his hauntings are. | 8 | /˘···/˘· |
| But soon or later, when you hear | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| That he has doffed this wrinkled gear, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Some evening, at the first star-ray, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Come to his graveside, pause and say: | 8 | ···/···· |
| “Whatever the message his to tell, | 9 | ·/˘·/˘··· |
| Two bright-souled women loved him well.” | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Stand and say that amid the dim: | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| It will be praise enough for him. | 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.