Laurel · Thomas Hardy · Satires of Circumstance, Lyrics and Reveries

Spectres That Grieve

Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) · 1914

iambic pentameter · ABAB · 24 lines · from Satires of Circumstance, Lyrics and Reveries

“IT is not death that harrows us,” they lipped,“The soundless cell is in itself relief,For life is an unfenced flower, benumbed and nippedAt unawares, and at its best but brief.”

The speakers, sundry phantoms of the gone,Had risen like filmy flames of phosphor dye,As if the palest of sheet lightnings shoneFrom the sward near me, as from a nether sky.

And much surprised was I that, spent and dead,They should not, like the many, be at rest,But stray as apparitions; hence I said,“Why, having slipped life, hark you back distressed?

“We are among the few death sets not free,The hurt, misrepresented names, who comeAt each year’s brink, and cry to HistoryTo do them justice, or go past them dumb.

“We are stript of rights; our shames lie unredressed,Our deeds in full anatomy are not shown,Our words in morsels merely are expressedOn the scriptured page, our motives blurred, unknown.”

Then all these shaken slighted visitants spedInto the vague, and left me musing thereOn fames that well might instance what they had said,Until the New-Year’s dawn strode up the air.

Words in this poem

soundless a.: Not capable of being sounded or fathomed; unfathomable.
sundry a.: Several; divers; more than one or two; various. [OE. sundry, sondry, AS. syndrig, fr. sundor asunder. See Sunder, v. t.]
filmy a.: Composed of film or films.
nether a.: Situated down or below; lying beneath, or in the lower part; having a lower position; belonging to the region below; lower; under; -- opposed to upper. [OE. nethere, neithere, AS. ni, fr. the adv. ni downward; akin to neo below, beneath, D. neder down, G. nieder, Sw. nedre below, nether, a. & adv., and also to S]
brink n.: The edge, margin, or border of a steep place, as of a precipice; a bank or edge, as of a river or pit; a verge; a border; as, the brink of a chasm. Also Fig. [Dan. brink edge, verge; akin to Sw. brink declivity, hill, Icel. brekka; cf. LG. brink a grassy hill, W. bryn hill, bryncyn hillock.]

Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.

About this text

Spectres That Grieve 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, Spectres That Grieve, in Satires of Circumstance, Lyrics and Reveries (1914), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #2863, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hardy-satires/spectres-that-grieve.html, id L24017.

Form and metre

Spectres That Grieve is 24 lines in 6 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 4 of its 6 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%).

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 ABAB lipped^A · relief^B · nipped^A · brief^B
2 -A-A gone · dye^A · shone · sky^A
3 ABAB dead^A · rest^B · said^A · distressed^B
4 -A-A free · come^A · history · dumb^A
5 ABAB unredressed^A · shown^B · expressed^A · unknown^B
6 ABAB sped^A · there^B · said^A · air^B

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
“IT is not death that harrows us,” they lipped,	10	·····/˘···
“The soundless cell is in itself relief,	10	·/˘···˘/˘/
For life is an unfenced flower, benumbed and nipped	11	····˘//˘/··
At unawares, and at its best but brief.”	10	··˘/······
The speakers, sundry phantoms of the gone,	10	·/˘/˘/˘···
Had risen like filmy flames of phosphor dye,	11	·/˘·/˘··/··
As if the palest of sheet lightnings shone	10	···/˘··/˘·
From the sward near me, as from a nether sky.	11	········/˘·
And much surprised was I that, spent and dead,	10	··˘/······
They should not, like the many, be at rest,	10	·····/˘···
But stray as apparitions; hence I said,	10	····˘/˘···
“Why, having slipped life, hark you back distressed?	10	·/˘·····˘/
“We are among the few death sets not free,	10	··········
The hurt, misrepresented names, who come	10	···˘˘/˘···
At each year’s brink, and cry to History	10	·······/˘˘
To do them justice, or go past them dumb.	10	···/˘·····
“We are stript of rights; our shames lie unredressed,	11	·····/·····
Our deeds in full anatomy are not shown,	10	/···˘/˘···
Our words in morsels merely are expressed	10	/··/˘/˘·˘/
On the scriptured page, our motives blurred, unknown.”	11	··/˘·//˘·˘/
Then all these shaken slighted visitants sped	11	···/˘/˘····
Into the vague, and left me musing there	10	·······/˘·
On fames that well might instance what they had said,	11	·····/˘····
Until the New-Year’s dawn strode up the air.	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.

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