The Moon Looks in I
I have risen again,And awhile surveyBy my chilly rayThrough your window-paneYour upturned face,As you think, “Ah-sheNow dreams of meIn her distant place!”
Words in this poem
- awhile adv.
- For a while; for some time; for a short time. [Adj. a + while time, interval.]
- pane n.
- The narrow edge of a hammer head. See Peen. [F. panne.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Moon Looks in I 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 Moon Looks in I, in Satires of Circumstance, Lyrics and Reveries (1914), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #2863, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hardy-satires/the-moon-looks-in-i.html, id L24084.
Form and metre
The Moon Looks in I is 8 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 50% of the lines. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%).
See other poems in rhyming couplets, other poems in iambic trimeter.
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 ABBACDDC againA · surveyB · rayB · paneA · faceC · sheD · meD · placeC
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| I have risen again, | 6 | ··/˘˘/ |
| And awhile survey | 5 | ·˘/˘/ |
| By my chilly ray | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Through your window-pane | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Your upturned face, | 5 | ·˘/˘· |
| As you think, “Ah-she | 5 | ····· |
| Now dreams of me | 4 | ···· |
| In her distant place!” | 5 | ··/˘· |
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.