“She Charged Me”
SHE charged me with having said this and thatTo another woman long years before,In the very parlour where we sat,—
Sat on a night when the endless pourOf rain on the roof and the road belowBent the spring of the spirit more and more . . .
—So charged she me; and the Cupid’s bowOf her mouth was hard, and her eyes, and her face,And her white forefinger lifted slow.
Had she done it gently, or shown a traceThat not too curiously would she viewA folly passed ere her reign had place,
A kiss might have ended it. But I knewFrom the fall of each word, and the pause between,That the curtain would drop upon us twoEre long, in our play of slave and queen.
Words in this poem
- forefinger n.
- The finger next to the thumb; the index.
- curiously adv.
- In a curious manner.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
“She Charged Me” 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, “She Charged Me”, in Satires of Circumstance, Lyrics and Reveries (1914), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #2863, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hardy-satires/she-charged-me.html, id L24066.
Form and metre
“She Charged Me” is 16 lines in 5 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 75%).
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 ABA thatA · beforeB · satA
- 2 BCB pourB · belowC · moreB
- 3 -DC bow · faceD · slowC
- 4 DED traceD · viewE · placeD
- 5 EFEF knewE · betweenF · twoE · queenF
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 |
|---|---|---|
| SHE charged me with having said this and that | 10 | ····/˘···· |
| To another woman long years before, | 10 | ·˘/˘/˘···· |
| In the very parlour where we sat,— | 9 | ··/˘/˘··· |
| Sat on a night when the endless pour | 9 | ······/˘· |
| Of rain on the roof and the road below | 10 | ·········· |
| Bent the spring of the spirit more and more . . . | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| —So charged she me; and the Cupid’s bow | 10 | ··˘····/˘· |
| Of her mouth was hard, and her eyes, and her face, | 11 | ··········· |
| And her white forefinger lifted slow. | 9 | ···/·˘/˘· |
| Had she done it gently, or shown a trace | 10 | ····/˘···· |
| That not too curiously would she view | 10 | ···/˘˘˘··· |
| A folly passed ere her reign had place, | 10 | ·/˘·˘····· |
| A kiss might have ended it. But I knew | 10 | ····/˘···· |
| From the fall of each word, and the pause between, | 11 | ··········· |
| That the curtain would drop upon us two | 10 | ··/˘······ |
| Ere long, in our play of slave and queen. | 10 | ···/˘····· |
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.