Seen by the Waits
THROUGH snowy woods and shadyWe went to play a tuneTo the lonely manor-ladyBy the light of the Christmas moon.
We violed till, upward glancingTo where a mirror leaned,We saw her airily dancing,Deeming her movements screened;
Dancing alone in the room there,Thin-draped in her robe of night;Her postures, glassed in the gloom there,Were a strange phantasmal sight.
She had learnt (we heard when homing)That her roving spouse was dead;Why she had danced in the gloamingWe thought, but never said.
Words in this poem
- snowy a.
- White like snow.
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- glancing a.
- Shooting, as light.
- airily adv.
- In an airy manner; lightly; gaily; jauntily; fippantly.
- phantasmal a.
- Pertaining to, of the nature of, or resembling, a phantasm; spectral; illusive.
- homing a.
- Home-returning; -- used specifically of carrier pigeons.
- spouse v. t.
- To wed; to espouse. [See Espouse, and Spouse, n.]
- gloaming n.
- Twilight; dusk; the fall of the evening. [Scot. & North of Eng., and in poetry.] Hogg. [See Gloom.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Seen by the Waits 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, Seen by the Waits, in Satires of Circumstance, Lyrics and Reveries (1914), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #2863, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hardy-satires/seen-by-the-waits.html, id L24088.
Form and metre
Seen by the Waits is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 82%).
See other poems in trochaic 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 shadyA · tuneB · ladyA · moonB
- 2 ABAB glancingA · leanedB · dancingA · screenedB
- 3 ABAB thereA · nightB · thereA · sightB
- 4 ABAB homingA · deadB · gloamingA · saidB
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| THROUGH snowy woods and shady | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| We went to play a tune | 6 | ······ |
| To the lonely manor-lady | 8 | ··/˘/˘/˘ |
| By the light of the Christmas moon. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| We violed till, upward glancing | 8 | ··/·/˘/˘ |
| To where a mirror leaned, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| We saw her airily dancing, | 8 | ···/˘˘/˘ |
| Deeming her movements screened; | 6 | /˘·/˘· |
| Dancing alone in the room there, | 8 | /˘˘/···· |
| Thin-draped in her robe of night; | 7 | ······· |
| Her postures, glassed in the gloom there, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Were a strange phantasmal sight. | 7 | ···˘/˘· |
| She had learnt (we heard when homing) | 8 | ······/˘ |
| That her roving spouse was dead; | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Why she had danced in the gloaming | 8 | ······/˘ |
| We thought, but never said. | 6 | ···/˘· |
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.