After a Journey
HERETO I come to interview a ghost;Whither, O whither will its whim now draw me?Up the cliff, down, till I’m lonely, lost,And the unseen waters’ ejaculations awe me.Where you will next be there’s no knowing,Facing round about me everywhere,With your nut-coloured hair,And gray eyes, and rose-flush coming and going.
Yes: I have re-entered your olden haunts at last;Through the years, through the dead scenes I have tracked you;What have you now found to say of our past—Viewed across the dark space wherein I have lacked you?Summer gave us sweets, but autumn wrought division?Things were not lastly as firstly wellWith us twain, you tell?But all’s closed now, despite Time’s derision.
I see what you are doing: you are leading me onTo the spots we knew when we haunted here together,The waterfall, above which the mist-bow shoneAt the then fair hour in the then fair weather,And the cave just under, with a voice still so hollowThat it seems to call out to me from forty years ago,When you were all aglow,And not the thin ghost that I now frailly follow!
Ignorant of what there is flitting here to see,The waked birds preen and the seals flop lazily,Soon you will have, Dear, to vanish from me,For the stars close their shutters and the dawn whitens hazily.Trust me, I mind not, though Life lours,The bringing me here; nay, bring me here again!I am just the same as whenOur days were a joy, and our paths through flowers.
Words in this poem 16
- hereto adv.
- To this; hereunto. Hooker.
- ghost n.
- The spirit; the soul of man. [OE. gast, gost, soul, spirit, AS. gast breath, spirit, soul; akin to OS. g spirit, soul, D. geest, G. geist, and prob. to E. gaze, ghastly.]
- whither adv.
- To what place; -- used interrogatively; as, whither goest thou [OE. whider. AS. hwider; akin to E. where, who; cf. Goth. hvadre whither. See Who, and cf. Hither, Thither.]
- unseen a.
- Not seen or discovered.
- coloured a.
- Having color; tinged; dyed; painted; stained.
- olden a.
- Old; ancient; as, the olden time.
- lastly adv.
- In the last place; in conclusion.
- firstly adv.
- In the first place; before anything else; -- sometimes improperly used for first.
- twain a.
- Two;- nearly obsolete in common discourse, but used in poetry and burlesque. [OE. twein, tweien, tweyne, AS. twegen, masc. See Two.]
- haunted a.
- Inhabited by, or subject to the visits of, apparitions; frequented by a ghost.
- aglow adv.
- In a glow; glowing; as, cheeks aglow; the landscape all aglow. [Pref. a- + glow.]
- frailly adv.
- Weakly; infirmly.
- flitting n.
- A flying with lightness and celerity; a fluttering.
- preen n.
- A forked tool used by clothiers in dressing cloth. [AS. preón a clasp, bodkin; akin to D. priem punch, bodkin, awl, G. pfriem, Icel. prjonn a knitting needle, pin, Dan. preen a bodkin, punch.]
- flop v. t.
- To clap or strike, as a bird its wings, a fish its tail, etc.; to flap. [A variant of flap.]
- hazily adv.
- In a hazy manner; mistily; obscurely; confusedly.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
After a Journey 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, After a Journey, in Satires of Circumstance, Lyrics and Reveries (1914), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #2863, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hardy-satires/after-a-journey.html, id L24056.
Form and metre
After a Journey is 32 lines in 4 stanzas of 8 lines each. The metre is trochaic hexameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 74%).
See other poems in trochaic hexameter.
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-ABCCB ghost · meA · lost · meA · knowingB · everywhereC · hairC · goingB
- 2 ABABCDDC lastA · youB · pastA · youB · divisionC · wellD · tellD · derisionC
- 3 -A-ABCCB on · togetherA · shone · weatherA · hollowB · agoC · aglowC · followB
- 4 A-A--BB- seeA · lazily · meA · hazily · lours · againB · whenB · flowers
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 trochaic hexameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| HERETO I come to interview a ghost; | 10 | ˘/···/˘··· |
| Whither, O whither will its whim now draw me? | 11 | /˘·/˘······ |
| Up the cliff, down, till I’m lonely, lost, | 9 | ······/˘· |
| And the unseen waters’ ejaculations awe me. | 13 | ··˘//˘˘·˘/˘·· |
| Where you will next be there’s no knowing, | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| Facing round about me everywhere, | 9 | /˘····/˘· |
| With your nut-coloured hair, | 7 | ···/˘˘· |
| And gray eyes, and rose-flush coming and going. | 10 | ······/˘·/ |
| Yes: I have re-entered your olden haunts at last; | 12 | ····/˘·/˘··· |
| Through the years, through the dead scenes I have tracked you; | 11 | ··········· |
| What have you now found to say of our past— | 10 | ········/· |
| Viewed across the dark space wherein I have lacked you? | 12 | ·˘/········· |
| Summer gave us sweets, but autumn wrought division? | 12 | /˘····/˘·˘/˘ |
| Things were not lastly as firstly well | 9 | ···/˘·/˘· |
| With us twain, you tell? | 5 | ····· |
| But all’s closed now, despite Time’s derision. | 10 | ····˘/·˘/˘ |
| I see what you are doing: you are leading me on | 12 | ·····/··/˘·· |
| To the spots we knew when we haunted here together, | 13 | ·······/˘·˘/˘ |
| The waterfall, above which the mist-bow shone | 11 | ·/˘········ |
| At the then fair hour in the then fair weather, | 11 | ····/····/˘ |
| And the cave just under, with a voice still so hollow | 13 | ···········/˘ |
| That it seems to call out to me from forty years ago, | 14 | ·········/˘·˘/ |
| When you were all aglow, | 6 | ····˘/ |
| And not the thin ghost that I now frailly follow! | 12 | ········/˘/˘ |
| Ignorant of what there is flitting here to see, | 11 | /˘····/˘··· |
| The waked birds preen and the seals flop lazily, | 10 | ········/˘ |
| Soon you will have, Dear, to vanish from me, | 10 | ······/˘·· |
| For the stars close their shutters and the dawn whitens hazily. | 15 | ·····/˘···/˘/˘˘ |
| Trust me, I mind not, though Life lours, | 8 | ········ |
| The bringing me here; nay, bring me here again! | 11 | ·/˘······˘/ |
| I am just the same as when | 7 | ······· |
| Our days were a joy, and our paths through flowers. | 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.