Places
NOBODY says: Ah, that is the placeWhere chanced, in the hollow of years ago,What none of the Three Towns cared to know—The birth of a little girl of grace—The sweetest the house saw, first or last;Yet it was soOn that day long past.
Nobody thinks: There, there she layIn a room by the Hoe, like the bud of a flower,And listened, just after the bedtime hour,To the stammering chimes that used to playThe quaint Old Hundred-and-Thirteenth tuneIn Saint Andrew’s towerNight, morn, and noon.
Nobody calls to mind that hereUpon Boterel Hill, where the carters skid,With cheeks whose airy flush outbidFresh fruit in bloom, and free of fear,She cantered down, as if she must fall(Though she never did),To the charm of all.
Nay: one there is to whom these things,That nobody else’s mind calls back,Have a savour that scenes in being lack,And a presence more than the actual brings;To whom to-day is beneaped and stale,And its urgent clackBut a vapid tale.
Words in this poem
- nobody n.
- No person; no one; not anybody. [No, a. + body.]
- bedtime n.
- The time to go to bed.
- quaint a.
- Prudent; wise; hence, crafty; artful; wily. [OE. queint, queynte, coint, prudent, wise, cunning, pretty, odd, OF. cointe cultivated, amiable, agreeable, neat, fr. L. cognitus known, p. p. of cognoscere to ]
- morn n.
- The first part of the day; the morning; -- used chiefly in poetry. [OE. morwen, morgen, AS. morgen; akin to D. morgen, OS. morgan, G. morgen, Icel. morginn, morgunn, Sw. morgon, Dan. morgen, Goth. maúrgins. Cf. Morrow, Morning.]
- outbid v. t.
- To exceed or surpass in bidding.
- savour v. t.
- To perceive by the smell or the taste; hence, to perceive; to note. B. Jonson.
- clack v. i.
- To make a sudden, sharp noise, or a succesion of such noises, as by striking an object, or by collision of parts; to rattle; to click. [Prob. of imitative origin; cf. F.claquer to clap, crack, D. klakken, MHG. klac crack, Ir. clagaim I make a noise, ring. Cf. Clack, n., Clatter, Click.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Places 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, Places, in Satires of Circumstance, Lyrics and Reveries (1914), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #2863, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hardy-satires/places.html, id L24059.
Form and metre
Places is 28 lines in 4 stanzas of 7 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABBACBC. 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 ABBACBC placeA · agoB · knowB · graceA · lastC · soB · pastC
- 2 ABBACBC layA · flowerB · hourB · playA · tuneC · towerB · noonC
- 3 ABBACBC hereA · skidB · outbidB · fearA · fallC · didB · allC
- 4 ABBACBC thingsA · backB · lackB · bringsA · staleC · clackB · taleC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| NOBODY says: Ah, that is the place | 9 | /········ |
| Where chanced, in the hollow of years ago, | 10 | ····/˘··˘/ |
| What none of the Three Towns cared to know— | 9 | ········· |
| The birth of a little girl of grace— | 9 | ····/˘··· |
| The sweetest the house saw, first or last; | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| Yet it was so | 4 | ···· |
| On that day long past. | 5 | ····· |
| Nobody thinks: There, there she lay | 8 | /······· |
| In a room by the Hoe, like the bud of a flower, | 12 | ···········/ |
| And listened, just after the bedtime hour, | 10 | ·/˘····/·/ |
| To the stammering chimes that used to play | 9 | ··/˘····· |
| The quaint Old Hundred-and-Thirteenth tune | 9 | ···/˘·//· |
| In Saint Andrew’s tower | 6 | ··/·/˘ |
| Night, morn, and noon. | 4 | ···· |
| Nobody calls to mind that here | 8 | /······· |
| Upon Boterel Hill, where the carters skid, | 11 | ········/˘· |
| With cheeks whose airy flush outbid | 8 | ···/˘·/· |
| Fresh fruit in bloom, and free of fear, | 8 | ········ |
| She cantered down, as if she must fall | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| (Though she never did), | 5 | ··/˘· |
| To the charm of all. | 5 | ····· |
| Nay: one there is to whom these things, | 8 | ········ |
| That nobody else’s mind calls back, | 9 | ·/··/˘··· |
| Have a savour that scenes in being lack, | 9 | ··/˘···/· |
| And a presence more than the actual brings; | 10 | ··/˘···/˘· |
| To whom to-day is beneaped and stale, | 9 | ·····˘/·· |
| And its urgent clack | 5 | ··/˘· |
| But a vapid tale. | 5 | ··/˘· |
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.