Without Ceremony
IT was your way, my dear,To be gone without a wordWhen callers, friends, or kinHad left, and I hastened inTo rejoin you, as I inferred.
And when you’d a mind to careerOff anywhere—say to town—You were all on a sudden goneBefore I had thought thereon,Or noticed your trunks were down.
So, now that you disappearFor ever in that swift style,Your meaning seems to meJust as it used to be:“Good-bye is not worth while!”
Words in this poem
- rejoin v. t.
- To join again; to unite after separation. [F. rejoindre; pref. re- re- + joindre to join. See Join, and cf. Rejoinder.]
- career n.
- A race course: the ground run over. [F. carrière race course, high road, street, fr. L. carrus wagon. See Car.]
- thereon adv.
- On that or this. [AS. . See There, and On.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Without Ceremony 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, Without Ceremony, in Satires of Circumstance, Lyrics and Reveries (1914), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #2863, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hardy-satires/without-ceremony.html, id L24049.
Form and metre
Without Ceremony is 15 lines in 3 stanzas of 5 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 82%).
See other poems in iambic 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 ABCCB dearA · wordB · kinC · inC · inferredB
- 2 ADEED careerA · townD · goneE · thereonE · downD
- 3 AFGGF disappearA · styleF · meG · beG · whileF
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| IT was your way, my dear, | 6 | ······ |
| To be gone without a word | 7 | ······· |
| When callers, friends, or kin | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Had left, and I hastened in | 8 | ····/˘˘· |
| To rejoin you, as I inferred. | 8 | ·˘/···˘/ |
| And when you’d a mind to career | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Off anywhere—say to town— | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| You were all on a sudden gone | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Before I had thought thereon, | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| Or noticed your trunks were down. | 8 | ·/˘˘···· |
| So, now that you disappear | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| For ever in that swift style, | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| Your meaning seems to me | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Just as it used to be: | 6 | ······ |
| “Good-bye is not worth while!” | 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.