The Voice
WOMAN much missed, how you call to me, call to me,Saying that now you are not as you wereWhen you had changed from the one who was all to me,But as at first, when our day was fair.
Can it be you that I hear? Let me view you, then,Standing as when I drew near to the townWhere you would wait for me: yes, as I knew you then,Even to the original air-blue gown!
Or is it only the breeze, in its listlessnessTravelling across the wet mead to me here,You being ever consigned to existlessness,Heard no more again far or near?
Thus I; faltering forward,Leaves around me falling,Wind oozing thin through the thorn from norwardAnd the woman calling.
Words in this poem
- faltering a.
- Hesitating; trembling.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Voice 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 Voice, in Satires of Circumstance, Lyrics and Reveries (1914), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #2863, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hardy-satires/the-voice.html, id L24052.
Form and metre
The Voice is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 2 of its 4 stanzas. The metre is dactylic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 76%).
See other poems in dactylic 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 A-A- meA · were · meA · fair
- 2 ABAB thenA · townB · thenA · gownB
- 3 ABAB listlessnessA · hereB · existlessnessA · nearB
- 4 A-A- forwardA · falling · norwardA · calling
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 dactylic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| WOMAN much missed, how you call to me, call to me, | 12 | /˘·········· |
| Saying that now you are not as you were | 10 | /˘········ |
| When you had changed from the one who was all to me, | 12 | ············ |
| But as at first, when our day was fair. | 9 | ·····/··· |
| Can it be you that I hear? Let me view you, then, | 12 | ············ |
| Standing as when I drew near to the town | 10 | /˘········ |
| Where you would wait for me: yes, as I knew you then, | 12 | ············ |
| Even to the original air-blue gown! | 9 | /··˘/˘··· |
| Or is it only the breeze, in its listlessness | 12 | ···/˘······· |
| Travelling across the wet mead to me here, | 10 | /˘˘/······ |
| You being ever consigned to existlessness, | 10 | ·//˘/····· |
| Heard no more again far or near? | 8 | ···˘/··· |
| Thus I; faltering forward, | 7 | ··/˘˘/˘ |
| Leaves around me falling, | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Wind oozing thin through the thorn from norward | 10 | ·/˘·····/˘ |
| And the woman calling. | 6 | ··/˘/˘ |
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.