The Discovery
I WANDERED to a crude coastLike a ghost;Upon the hills I saw fires—Funeral pyresSeemingly—and heard breakingWaves like distant cannonades that set the land shaking.
And so I never once guessedA Love-nest,Bowered and candle-lit, layIn my way,Till I found a hid hollow,Where I burst on her my heart could not but follow.
Words in this poem
- ghost n.
- The spirit; the soul of man. [OE. gast, gost, soul, spirit, AS. gast breath, spirit, soul; akin to OS. g spirit, soul, D. geest, G. geist, and prob. to E. gaze, ghastly.]
- seemingly adv.
- In appearance; in show; in semblance; apparently; ostensibly.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Discovery 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, The Discovery, in Satires of Circumstance, Lyrics and Reveries (1914), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #2863, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hardy-satires/the-discovery.html, id L24035.
Form and metre
The Discovery is 12 lines in 2 stanzas of 6 lines each. Every stanza rhymes AABBCC. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 76%).
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 AABBCC coastA · ghostA · firesB · pyresB · breakingC · shakingC
- 2 AABBCC guessedA · nestA · layB · wayB · hollowC · followC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I WANDERED to a crude coast | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| Like a ghost; | 3 | ··· |
| Upon the hills I saw fires— | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Funeral pyres | 5 | /˘˘/˘ |
| Seemingly—and heard breaking | 7 | /˘˘··/˘ |
| Waves like distant cannonades that set the land shaking. | 13 | ··/˘·······/˘ |
| And so I never once guessed | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| A Love-nest, | 3 | ··· |
| Bowered and candle-lit, lay | 7 | /˘·/˘·· |
| In my way, | 3 | ··· |
| Till I found a hid hollow, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Where I burst on her my heart could not but follow. | 12 | ··········/˘ |
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.