Seventy-Four and Twenty
HERE goes a man of seventy-four,Who sees not what life means for him,And here another in years a scoreWho reads its very figure and trim.
The one who shall walk to-day with meIs not the youth who gazes far,But the breezy wight who cannot seeWhat Earth’s ingrained conditions are.
Words in this poem
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- breezy a.
- Characterized by, or having, breezes; airy.
- wight n.
- A whit; a bit; a jot. [OE. wight, wiht, a wight, a whit, AS. wiht, wuht, a creature, a thing; skin to D. wicht a child, OS. & OHG. wiht a creature, thing, G. wicht a creature, Icel. v]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Seventy-Four and Twenty 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, Seventy-Four and Twenty, in Satires of Circumstance, Lyrics and Reveries (1914), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #2863, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hardy-satires/seventy-four-and-twenty.html, id L24072.
Form and metre
Seventy-Four and Twenty is 8 lines in 2 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%).
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 fourA · himB · scoreA · trimB
- 2 ABAB meA · farB · seeA · areB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| HERE goes a man of seventy-four, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Who sees not what life means for him, | 8 | ········ |
| And here another in years a score | 9 | ··˘/˘···· |
| Who reads its very figure and trim. | 9 | ···/˘/˘·· |
| The one who shall walk to-day with me | 9 | ········· |
| Is not the youth who gazes far, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| But the breezy wight who cannot see | 9 | ··/˘··/˘· |
| What Earth’s ingrained conditions are. | 8 | ··˘/˘/˘· |
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.