In Front of the Landscape
PLUNGING and labouring on in a tide of visions,Dolorous and dear,Forward I pushed my way as amid waste watersStretching around,Through whose eddies there glimmered the customed landscapeYonder and near,
Blotted to feeble mist. And the coomb and the uplandFoliage-crowned,Ancient chalk-pit, milestone, rills in the grass-flatStroked by the light,Seemed but a ghost-like gauze, and no substantialMeadow or mound.
What were the infinite spectacles bulking foremostUnder my sight,Hindering me to discern my paced advancementLengthening to miles;What were the re-creations killing the daytimeAs by the night?
O they were speechful faces, gazing insistent,Some as with smiles,Some as with slow-born tears that brinily trundledOver the wreckedCheeks that were fair in their flush-time, ash now with anguish,Harrowed by wiles.
Yes, I could see them, feel them, hear them, address them—Halo-bedecked—And, alas, onwards, shaken by fierce unreason,Rigid in hate,Smitten by years-long wryness born of misprision,Dreaded, suspect.
Then there would breast me shining sights, sweet seasonsFurther in date;Instruments of strings with the tenderest passionVibrant, besideLamps long extinguished, robes, cheeks, eyes with the earth’s crustNow corporate.
Also there rose a headland of hoary aspectGnawed by the tide,Frilled by the nimb of the morning as two friends stood thereGuilelessly glad—Wherefore they knew not—touched by the fringe of an ecstasyScantly descried.
Later images too did the day unfurl me,Shadowed and sad,Clay cadavers of those who had shared in the dramas,Laid now at ease,Passions all spent, chiefest the one of the broad browSepulture-clad.
So did beset me scenes miscalled of the bygone,Over the leaze,Past the clump, and down to where lay the beheld ones;—Yea, as the rhymeSung by the sea-swell, so in their pleading dumbnessCaptured me these.
For, their lost revisiting manifestationsIn their own timeMuch had I slighted, caring not for their purport,Seeing behindThings more coveted, reckoned the better worth callingSweet, sad, sublime.
Thus do they now show hourly before the intenserStare of the mindAs they were ghosts avenging their slights by my bypastBody-borne eyes,Show, too, with fuller translation than rested upon themAs living kind.
Hence wag the tongues of the passing people, sayingIn their surmise,“Ah—whose is this dull form that perambulates, seeing noughtRound him that loomsWhithersoever his footsteps turn in his farings,Save a few tombs?”
Words in this poem 24
- labouring a.
- That labors; performing labor; esp., performing coarse, heavy work, not requiring skill also, set apart for labor; as, laboring days.
- dolorous a.
- Full of grief; sad; sorrowful; doleful; dismal; as, a dolorous object; dolorous discourses. [L. dolorosus, from dolor: cf. F. douloureux. See Dolor.]
- 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]
- yonder adv.
- At a distance, but within view. [OE. yonder, ýonder; cf. OD. ginder, Goth. jaindr there. Yond, adv.]
- coomb n.
- A dry measure of four bushels, or half a quarter. [AS. cumb a liquid measure, perh. from LL. cumba boat, tomb of stone, fr. Gr. kumpf bowl.]
- milestone n.
- A stone serving the same purpose as a milepost.
- 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.]
- speechful a.
- Full of speech or words; voluble; loquacious.
- insistent a.
- Standing or resting on something; as, an insistent wall. Sir H. [L. insistens, -entis, p. pr. of insistere.]
- unreason v. t.
- To undo, disprove, or refute by reasoning. [1st pref. un- + reason.]
- wryness n.
- The quality or state of being wry, or distorted. W. Montagu.
- misprision n.
- The act of misprising; misapprehension; misconception; mistake. [LL. misprisio, or OF. mesprison, prop., a mistaking, but confused with OF. mespris contempt, F. mépris. See 2d Misprise, Misprize, Prison.]
- vibrant a.
- Vibrating; tremulous; resonant; as, vibrant drums. [L. vibrans, p. pr.: cf. F. vibrant. See Vibrate.]
- hoary a.
- White or whitish."The hoary willows."
- frilled a.
- Furnished with a frill or frills. Frilled lizard (Zoöl.), a large Australian lizard (Chlamydosaurus Kingii) about three feet long, which has a large, erectile frill on each side of the neck.
- wherefore adv.
- For which reason; so; -- used relatively. [Where + for.]
- scantly adv.
- In a scant manner; not fully or sufficiently; narrowly; penuriously.
- unfurl v. t.
- To loose from a furled state; to unfold; to expand; to open or spread; as, to unfurl sails; to unfurl a flag. [1st pref. un- + furl.]
- chiefest a.
- First or foremost; chief; principal. [Superl. of Chief.]
- bygone n.
- Something gone by or past; a past event.
- dumbness n.
- The quality or state of being dumb; muteness; silence; inability to speak.
- purport n.
- Design or tendency; meaning; import; tenor. [OF. purport; pur, pour, for (L. pro) + porter to bear, carry. See Port demeanor.]
- hourly a.
- Happening or done every hour; occurring hour by hour; frequent; often repeated; renewed hour by hour; continual.
- whithersoever adv.
- To whatever place; to what place soever; wheresoever; as, I will go whithersoever you lead. [Whither + soever.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
In Front of the Landscape 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, In Front of the Landscape, in Satires of Circumstance, Lyrics and Reveries (1914), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #2863, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hardy-satires/in-front-of-the-landscape.html, id L23999.
Form and metre
In Front of the Landscape is 72 lines in 12 stanzas of 6 lines each. The metre is trochaic dimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 71%).
See other poems in trochaic dimeter.
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---A visions · dearA · waters · around · landscape · nearA
- 2 AA---A uplandA · crownedA · flat · light · substantial · moundA
- 3 -A---A foremost · sightA · advancement · miles · daytime · nightA
- 4 -A---A insistent · smilesA · trundled · wrecked · anguish · wilesA
- 5 -A---A them · bedeckedA · unreason · hate · misprision · suspectA
- 6 -A---A seasons · dateA · passion · beside · crust · corporateA
- 7 -A---A aspect · tideA · there · glad · ecstasy · descriedA
- 8 -ABB-A me · sadA · dramasB · easeB · brow · cladA
- 9 -A---A bygone · leazeA · ones · rhyme · dumbness · theseA
- 10 -A---A manifestations · timeA · purport · behind · calling · sublimeA
- 11 -A---A intenser · mindA · bypast · eyes · them · kindA
- 12 ---A-A saying · surmise · nought · loomsA · farings · tombsA
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 dimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| PLUNGING and labouring on in a tide of visions, | 12 | /˘·/˘·····/˘ |
| Dolorous and dear, | 5 | /˘˘·· |
| Forward I pushed my way as amid waste waters | 12 | /˘·····˘/·/˘ |
| Stretching around, | 4 | /˘·· |
| Through whose eddies there glimmered the customed landscape | 12 | ··/˘·/˘·/˘/· |
| Yonder and near, | 4 | /˘·· |
| Blotted to feeble mist. And the coomb and the upland | 13 | /˘·/˘······/˘ |
| Foliage-crowned, | 3 | /˘· |
| Ancient chalk-pit, milestone, rills in the grass-flat | 11 | /˘··/······ |
| Stroked by the light, | 4 | ···· |
| Seemed but a ghost-like gauze, and no substantial | 11 | ········˘/˘ |
| Meadow or mound. | 4 | /··· |
| What were the infinite spectacles bulking foremost | 11 | ···/˘/˘/˘/· |
| Under my sight, | 4 | ···· |
| Hindering me to discern my paced advancement | 11 | /˘··˘/··˘/˘ |
| Lengthening to miles; | 5 | /˘˘·· |
| What were the re-creations killing the daytime | 12 | ····˘/˘/˘·/· |
| As by the night? | 4 | ···· |
| O they were speechful faces, gazing insistent, | 12 | ···/˘/˘/˘˘/˘ |
| Some as with smiles, | 4 | ···· |
| Some as with slow-born tears that brinily trundled | 12 | ··········/˘ |
| Over the wrecked | 4 | ···· |
| Cheeks that were fair in their flush-time, ash now with anguish, | 13 | ···········/˘ |
| Harrowed by wiles. | 4 | /˘·· |
| Yes, I could see them, feel them, hear them, address them— | 12 | ·········/·· |
| Halo-bedecked— | 4 | /˘˘/ |
| And, alas, onwards, shaken by fierce unreason, | 12 | ·˘//˘/˘··˘/˘ |
| Rigid in hate, | 4 | /˘·· |
| Smitten by years-long wryness born of misprision, | 12 | /˘···/˘··˘/˘ |
| Dreaded, suspect. | 4 | /˘/· |
| Then there would breast me shining sights, sweet seasons | 11 | ·····/˘··/˘ |
| Further in date; | 4 | /˘·· |
| Instruments of strings with the tenderest passion | 10 | /˘····/˘/˘ |
| Vibrant, beside | 4 | /˘·/ |
| Lamps long extinguished, robes, cheeks, eyes with the earth’s crust | 12 | ··˘/˘······· |
| Now corporate. | 4 | ·/˘˘ |
| Also there rose a headland of hoary aspect | 12 | /˘···/˘·/˘/· |
| Gnawed by the tide, | 4 | ···· |
| Frilled by the nimb of the morning as two friends stood there | 13 | ······/˘····· |
| Guilelessly glad— | 5 | ····· |
| Wherefore they knew not—touched by the fringe of an ecstasy | 13 | /˘·········/˘ |
| Scantly descried. | 3 | /˘· |
| Later images too did the day unfurl me, | 11 | /˘/˘····˘/· |
| Shadowed and sad, | 4 | /˘·· |
| Clay cadavers of those who had shared in the dramas, | 13 | ·˘/˘·······/˘ |
| Laid now at ease, | 4 | ···· |
| Passions all spent, chiefest the one of the broad brow | 12 | /˘··/˘······ |
| Sepulture-clad. | 4 | /˘˘· |
| So did beset me scenes miscalled of the bygone, | 12 | ··˘/······/· |
| Over the leaze, | 4 | ···· |
| Past the clump, and down to where lay the beheld ones; | 12 | ·········˘/· |
| —Yea, as the rhyme | 4 | ···· |
| Sung by the sea-swell, so in their pleading dumbness | 12 | ········/˘/˘ |
| Captured me these. | 4 | /˘·· |
| For, their lost revisiting manifestations | 10 | ···˘/˘·˘/˘ |
| In their own time | 4 | ···· |
| Much had I slighted, caring not for their purport, | 12 | ···/˘/˘···˘/ |
| Seeing behind | 4 | /˘·· |
| Things more coveted, reckoned the better worth calling | 12 | ··/˘/˘·/˘·/˘ |
| Sweet, sad, sublime. | 4 | ··˘/ |
| Thus do they now show hourly before the intenser | 13 | ·····/˘······ |
| Stare of the mind | 4 | ···· |
| As they were ghosts avenging their slights by my bypast | 13 | ····˘/˘····/˘ |
| Body-borne eyes, | 4 | /˘·· |
| Show, too, with fuller translation than rested upon them | 14 | ···/˘˘/˘·/˘··· |
| As living kind. | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Hence wag the tongues of the passing people, saying | 12 | ······/˘/˘/˘ |
| In their surmise, | 4 | ··˘/ |
| “Ah—whose is this dull form that perambulates, seeing nought | 13 | ···········/· |
| Round him that looms | 4 | ···· |
| Whithersoever his footsteps turn in his farings, | 12 | ·····/····/˘ |
| Save a few tombs?” | 4 | ···· |
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.