His Visitor
I COME across from Mellstock while the moon wastes weakerTo behold where I lived with you for twenty years and more:I shall go in the gray, at the passing of the mail-train,And need no setting open of the long familiar doorAs before.
The change I notice in my once own quarters!A brilliant budded border where the daisies used to be,The rooms new painted, and the pictures altered,And other cups and saucers, and no cozy nook for teaAs with me.
I discern the dim faces of the sleep-wrapt servants;They are not those who tended me through feeble hours and strong,But strangers quite, who never knew my rule here,Who never saw me painting, never heard my softling songFloat along.
So I don’t want to linger in this re-decked dwelling,I feel too uneasy at the contrasts I behold,And I make again for Mellstock to return here never,And rejoin the roomy silence, and the mute and manifoldSouls of old.
Words in this poem
- 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,]
- nook n.
- A narrow place formed by an angle in bodies or between bodies; a corner; a recess; a secluded retreat. [OE. nok; cf. Gael. & Ir. niuc.]
- softling n.
- A soft, effeminate person; a voluptuary. Bp. Woolton. .
- rejoin v. t.
- To join again; to unite after separation. [F. rejoindre; pref. re- re- + joindre to join. See Join, and cf. Rejoinder.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
His Visitor 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, His Visitor, in Satires of Circumstance, Lyrics and Reveries (1914), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #2863, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hardy-satires/his-visitor.html, id L24053.
Form and metre
His Visitor is 20 lines in 4 stanzas of 5 lines each. The metre is iambic heptameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%).
See other poems in iambic heptameter.
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-AA weaker · moreA · train · doorA · beforeA
- 2 -A-AA quarters · beA · altered · teaA · meA
- 3 -A-AA servants · strongA · here · songA · alongA
- 4 -A-AA dwelling · beholdA · never · manifoldA · oldA
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 heptameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| I COME across from Mellstock while the moon wastes weaker | 13 | ··˘/·······/˘ |
| To behold where I lived with you for twenty years and more: | 14 | ·˘/······/˘··· |
| I shall go in the gray, at the passing of the mail-train, | 14 | ········/˘···· |
| And need no setting open of the long familiar door | 14 | ···/˘/˘···˘/˘· |
| As before. | 3 | ··· |
| The change I notice in my once own quarters! | 11 | ···/˘····/˘ |
| A brilliant budded border where the daisies used to be, | 14 | ·/˘/˘/˘··/˘··· |
| The rooms new painted, and the pictures altered, | 11 | ···/˘··/˘/˘ |
| And other cups and saucers, and no cozy nook for tea | 14 | ·/˘··/˘··/˘··· |
| As with me. | 3 | ··· |
| I discern the dim faces of the sleep-wrapt servants; | 13 | ·˘/··/˘····/˘ |
| They are not those who tended me through feeble hours and strong, | 14 | ·····/˘··/˘/·· |
| But strangers quite, who never knew my rule here, | 10 | ·/˘··/···· |
| Who never saw me painting, never heard my softling song | 12 | ·/··/˘/··/˘· |
| Float along. | 3 | ·˘/ |
| So I don’t want to linger in this re-decked dwelling, | 13 | ·····/˘····/˘ |
| I feel too uneasy at the contrasts I behold, | 13 | ···˘/˘··/˘·˘/ |
| And I make again for Mellstock to return here never, | 13 | ···˘/····˘/·/ |
| And rejoin the roomy silence, and the mute and manifold | 15 | ·˘/·/˘/˘····/˘· |
| Souls of old. | 3 | ··· |
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.