Over the Coffin
THEY stand confronting, the coffin between,His wife of old, and his wife of late,And the dead man whose they both had beenSeems listening aloof, as to things past date.—“I have called,” says the first. “Do you marvel or not?”“In truth,” says the second, “I do—somewhat.”
“Well, there was a word to be said by me! . . .I divorced that man because of you—It seemed I must do it, boundenly;But now I am older, and tell you true,For life is little, and dead lies he;I would I had let alone you two!And both of us, scorning parochial ways,Had lived like the wives in the patriarchs’ days.”
Words in this poem
- confronting n.
- dealing with (a person or problem) directly; taking the bull by the horns.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Over the Coffin 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, Over the Coffin, in Satires of Circumstance, Lyrics and Reveries (1914), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #2863, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hardy-satires/over-the-coffin.html, id L24032.
Form and metre
Over the Coffin is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 71%).
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-A-- between · lateA · been · dateA · not · somewhat
- 2 AB-BABCC meA · youB · boundenly · trueB · heA · twoB · waysC · daysC
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 stand confronting, the coffin between, | 10 | ··˘/˘·/˘·· |
| His wife of old, and his wife of late, | 9 | ········· |
| And the dead man whose they both had been | 9 | ········· |
| Seems listening aloof, as to things past date. | 10 | ·/˘˘/····· |
| —“I have called,” says the first. “Do you marvel or not?” | 12 | ········/˘·· |
| “In truth,” says the second, “I do—somewhat.” | 10 | ····/˘··// |
| “Well, there was a word to be said by me! . . . | 10 | ·········· |
| I divorced that man because of you— | 9 | ·˘/······ |
| It seemed I must do it, boundenly; | 9 | ········· |
| But now I am older, and tell you true, | 10 | ····/˘···· |
| For life is little, and dead lies he; | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| I would I had let alone you two! | 9 | ·····˘/·· |
| And both of us, scorning parochial ways, | 10 | ····/˘˘/˘· |
| Had lived like the wives in the patriarchs’ days.” | 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.