After the Visit (To F. E. D.)
COME again to the placeWhere your presence was as a leaf that skimsDown a drouthy way whose ascent bedimsThe bloom on the farer’s face.
Come again, with the feetThat were light on the green as a thistledown ball,And those mute ministrations to one and to allBeyond a man’s saying sweet.
Until then the faint scentOf the bordering flowers swam unheeded away,And I marked not the charm in the changes of dayAs the cloud-colours came and went.
Through the dark corridorsYour walk was so soundless I did not knowYour form from a phantom’s of long agoSaid to pass on the ancient floors,
Till you drew from the shade,And I saw the large luminous living eyesRegard me in fixed inquiring-wiseAs those of a soul that weighed,
Scarce consciously,The eternal question of what Life was,And why we were there, and by whose strange lawsThat which mattered most could not be.
Words in this poem
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- soundless a.
- Not capable of being sounded or fathomed; unfathomable.
- scarce a.
- Not plentiful or abundant; in small quantity in proportion to the demand; not easily to be procured; rare; uncommon. [OE. scars, OF. escars, eschars, LL. scarpsus, for L. excerptus, p. p. of excerpere to pick out, and hence to contract, to shorten; ex (see Ex-) + carpere. See C]
- consciously adv.
- In a conscious manner; with knowledge of one's own mental operations or actions.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
After the Visit (To F. E. D.) 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 the Visit (To F. E. D.), in Satires of Circumstance, Lyrics and Reveries (1914), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #2863, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hardy-satires/after-the-visit-to-f-e-d.html, id L24002.
Form and metre
After the Visit (To F. E. D.) is 24 lines in 6 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABBA, complete in 4 of its 6 stanzas. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic tetrameter.
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 ABBA placeA · skimsB · bedimsB · faceA
- 2 ABBA feetA · ballB · allB · sweetA
- 3 ABBA scentA · awayB · dayB · wentA
- 4 -AA- corridors · knowA · agoA · floors
- 5 ABBA shadeA · eyesB · wiseB · weighedA
- 6 -AA- consciously · wasA · lawsA · be
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 |
|---|---|---|
| COME again to the place | 6 | ·˘/··· |
| Where your presence was as a leaf that skims | 10 | ··/˘······ |
| Down a drouthy way whose ascent bedims | 10 | ··/˘··˘/·· |
| The bloom on the farer’s face. | 7 | ······· |
| Come again, with the feet | 6 | ·˘/··· |
| That were light on the green as a thistledown ball, | 12 | ············ |
| And those mute ministrations to one and to all | 12 | ····˘/˘····· |
| Beyond a man’s saying sweet. | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Until then the faint scent | 6 | ······ |
| Of the bordering flowers swam unheeded away, | 11 | ··/˘/·˘/˘˘/ |
| And I marked not the charm in the changes of day | 12 | ········/˘·· |
| As the cloud-colours came and went. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Through the dark corridors | 6 | ···/˘˘ |
| Your walk was so soundless I did not know | 10 | ····/˘···· |
| Your form from a phantom’s of long ago | 10 | ····/˘··˘/ |
| Said to pass on the ancient floors, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Till you drew from the shade, | 6 | ······ |
| And I saw the large luminous living eyes | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| Regard me in fixed inquiring-wise | 9 | ˘/···˘/˘· |
| As those of a soul that weighed, | 8 | ·······˘ |
| Scarce consciously, | 4 | ·/˘˘ |
| The eternal question of what Life was, | 10 | ·˘/˘/˘···· |
| And why we were there, and by whose strange laws | 10 | ·········· |
| That which mattered most could not be. | 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.