At a Watering-Place
THEY sit and smoke on the esplanade,The man and his friend, and regard the bayWhere the far chalk cliffs, to the left displayed,Smile sallowly in the decline of day.And saunterers pass with laugh and jest—A handsome couple among the rest.
“That smart proud pair,” says the man to his friend,“Are to marry next week . . . How little he thinksThat dozens of days and nights on endI have stroked her neck, unhooked the linksOf her sleeve to get at her upper arm . . .Well, bliss is in ignorance: what’s the harm!”
Words in this poem
- jest n.
- A deed; an action; a gest. [OE. jeste, geste, deed, action, story, tale, OF. geste, LL. gesta, orig., exploits, neut. pl. from L. gestus, p. p. of gerere to bear, carry, accomplish, perfor]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
At a Watering-Place 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, At a Watering-Place, in Satires of Circumstance, Lyrics and Reveries (1914), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #2863, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hardy-satires/at-a-watering-place.html, id L24023.
Form and metre
At a Watering-Place is 12 lines in 2 stanzas of 6 lines each. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 76%).
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
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-ABB esplanade · bayA · displayed · dayA · jestB · restB
- 2 ABABCC friendA · thinksB · endA · linksB · armC · harmC
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| THEY sit and smoke on the esplanade, | 9 | ·······˘/ |
| The man and his friend, and regard the bay | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| Where the far chalk cliffs, to the left displayed, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Smile sallowly in the decline of day. | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| And saunterers pass with laugh and jest— | 9 | ········· |
| A handsome couple among the rest. | 9 | ·/˘/˘···· |
| “That smart proud pair,” says the man to his friend, | 10 | ·········· |
| “Are to marry next week . . . How little he thinks | 11 | ··/˘···/˘·· |
| That dozens of days and nights on end | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| I have stroked her neck, unhooked the links | 10 | ···˘··˘/·· |
| Of her sleeve to get at her upper arm . . . | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Well, bliss is in ignorance: what’s the harm!” | 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.