The Wistful Lady
“LOVE, while you were away there came to me—From whence I cannot tell—A plaintive lady pale and passionless,Who bent her eyes upon me critically,And weighed me with a wearing wistfulness,As if she knew me well.”
“I saw no lady of that wistful sortAs I came riding home.Perhaps she was some dame the Fates constrainBy memories sadder than she can support,Or by unhappy vacancy of brain,To leave her roof and roam?”
“Ah, but she knew me. And before this timeI have seen her, lending earTo my light outdoor words, and pondering each,Her frail white finger swayed in pantomime,As if she fain would close with me in speech,And yet would not come near.
“And once I saw her beckoning with her handAs I came into sightAt an upper window. And I at last went out;But when I reached where she had seemed to stand,And wandered up and down and searched about,I found she had vanished quite.”
Then thought I how my dead Love used to say,With a small smile, when sheWas waning wan, that she would hover roundAnd show herself after her passing dayTo any newer Love I might have found,But show her not to me.
Words in this poem
- passionless a.
- Void of passion; without anger or emotion; not easily excited; calm.
- wistful a.
- Longing; wishful; desirous. [For wishful; perhaps influenced by wistly, which is probably corrupted from OE. wisly certainly (from Icel. viss certain, akin to E. wit). See Wish.]
- dame n.
- A mistress of a family, who is a lady; a womam in authority; especially, a lady. [F. dame, LL. domna, fr. L. domina mistress, lady, fem. of dominus master, ruler, lord; akin to domare to tame, subdue. See Tame, and cf. Dam mother, Dan, Danger]
- vacancy n.
- The quality or state of being vacant; emptiness; hence, freedom from employment; intermission; leisure; idleness; listlessness. [Cf. F. vacance.]
- swayed a.
- Bent down, and hollow in the back; sway-backed; -- said of a horse.
- fain v. t.
- To be glad ; to wish or desire.
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- waning n.
- The act or process of waning, or decreasing.
- hover n.
- A cover; a shelter; a protection. Carew. C. Kingsley. [Etymol. doubtful.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Wistful Lady 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 Wistful Lady, in Satires of Circumstance, Lyrics and Reveries (1914), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #2863, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hardy-satires/the-wistful-lady.html, id L24061.
Form and metre
The Wistful Lady is 30 lines in 5 stanzas of 6 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABCACB, complete in 4 of its 5 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%).
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 -AB-BA me · tellA · passionlessB · critically · wistfulnessB · wellA
- 2 ABCACB sortA · homeB · constrainC · supportA · brainC · roamB
- 3 ABCACB timeA · earB · eachC · pantomimeA · speechC · nearB
- 4 ABCACB handA · sightB · outC · standA · aboutC · quiteB
- 5 ABCACB sayA · sheB · roundC · dayA · foundC · meB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| “LOVE, while you were away there came to me— | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| From whence I cannot tell— | 6 | ···/˘· |
| A plaintive lady pale and passionless, | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘˘ |
| Who bent her eyes upon me critically, | 11 | ·······/˘˘˘ |
| And weighed me with a wearing wistfulness, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘˘ |
| As if she knew me well.” | 6 | ······ |
| “I saw no lady of that wistful sort | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| As I came riding home. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Perhaps she was some dame the Fates constrain | 10 | ˘/······˘/ |
| By memories sadder than she can support, | 10 | ·/˘/˘···˘/ |
| Or by unhappy vacancy of brain, | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘˘·· |
| To leave her roof and roam?” | 6 | ······ |
| “Ah, but she knew me. And before this time | 10 | ·········· |
| I have seen her, lending ear | 7 | ····/˘· |
| To my light outdoor words, and pondering each, | 10 | ···/···/˘· |
| Her frail white finger swayed in pantomime, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| As if she fain would close with me in speech, | 10 | ·········· |
| And yet would not come near. | 6 | ······ |
| “And once I saw her beckoning with her hand | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| As I came into sight | 6 | ······ |
| At an upper window. And I at last went out; | 12 | ··/˘/˘······ |
| But when I reached where she had seemed to stand, | 10 | ·········· |
| And wandered up and down and searched about, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| I found she had vanished quite.” | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Then thought I how my dead Love used to say, | 10 | ·········· |
| With a small smile, when she | 6 | ······ |
| Was waning wan, that she would hover round | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| And show herself after her passing day | 10 | ··˘/···/˘· |
| To any newer Love I might have found, | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| But show her not to me. | 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.