In the Nuptial Chamber
“O THAT mastering tune?” And up in the bedLike a lace-robed phantom springs the bride;“And why?” asks the man she had that day wed,With a start, as the band plays on outside.“It’s the townsfolks’ cheery complimentBecause of our marriage, my Innocent.”
“O but you don’t know! ’Tis the passionate airTo which my old Love waltzed with me,And I swore as we spun that none should shareMy home, my kisses, till death, save he!And he dominates me and thrills me through,And it’s he I embrace while embracing you!”
About this text
In the Nuptial Chamber 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 the Nuptial Chamber, in Satires of Circumstance, Lyrics and Reveries (1914), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #2863, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hardy-satires/in-the-nuptial-chamber.html, id L24028.
Form and metre
In the Nuptial Chamber is 12 lines in 2 stanzas of 6 lines each. 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 ABAB-- bedA · brideB · wedA · outsideB · compliment · innocent
- 2 ABABCC airA · meB · shareA · heB · throughC · youC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| “O THAT mastering tune?” And up in the bed | 10 | ··/˘······ |
| Like a lace-robed phantom springs the bride; | 9 | ····/˘··· |
| “And why?” asks the man she had that day wed, | 10 | ·········· |
| With a start, as the band plays on outside. | 10 | ········// |
| “It’s the townsfolks’ cheery compliment | 9 | ····/˘/˘˘ |
| Because of our marriage, my Innocent.” | 9 | ···//˘·/˘ |
| “O but you don’t know! ’Tis the passionate air | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| To which my old Love waltzed with me, | 8 | ········ |
| And I swore as we spun that none should share | 10 | ·········· |
| My home, my kisses, till death, save he! | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| And he dominates me and thrills me through, | 10 | ··/˘······ |
| And it’s he I embrace while embracing you!” | 11 | ····˘/·˘/˘· |
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.