Your Last Drive
HERE by the moorway you returned,And saw the borough lights aheadThat lit your face—all undiscernedTo be in a week the face of the dead,And you told of the charm of that haloed viewThat never again would beam on you.
And on your left you passed the spotWhere eight days later you were to lie,And be spoken of as one who was not;Beholding it with a cursory eyeAs alien from you, though under its treeYou soon would halt everlastingly.
I drove not with you . . . Yet had I satAt your side that eve I should not have seenThat the countenance I was glancing atHad a last-time look in the flickering sheen,Nor have read the writing upon your face,“I go hence soon to my resting-place;
“You may miss me then. But I shall not knowHow many times you visit me there,Or what your thoughts are, or if you goThere never at all. And I shall not care.Should you censure me I shall take no heedAnd even your praises I shall not need.”
True: never you’ll know. And you will not mind.But shall I then slight you because of such?Dear ghost, in the past did you ever findThe thought “What profit?” move me muchYet the fact indeed remains the same,You are past love, praise, indifference, blame.
Words in this poem
- ahead adv.
- In or to the front; in advance; onward. [Pref. a- + head.]
- haloed a.
- Surrounded with a halo; invested with an ideal glory; glorified.
- beholding a.
- Obliged; beholden.
- cursory a.
- Running about; not stationary. [L. cursorius, fr. cursor. See Cursor.]
- everlastingly adv.
- In an everlasting manner.
- drove n.
- A collection of cattle driven, or cattle collected for driving; a number of animals, as oxen, sheep, or swine, driven in a body. [AS. draf, fr. drifan to drive. See Drive.]
- glancing a.
- Shooting, as light.
- sheen v. i.
- To shine; to glisten.
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- 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.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Your Last Drive 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, Your Last Drive, in Satires of Circumstance, Lyrics and Reveries (1914), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #2863, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hardy-satires/your-last-drive.html, id L24045.
Form and metre
Your Last Drive is 30 lines in 5 stanzas of 6 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABABCC, complete in 4 of its 5 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 75%).
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 ABABCC returnedA · aheadB · undiscernedA · deadB · viewC · youC
- 2 ABABB- spotA · lieB · notA · eyeB · treeB · everlastingly
- 3 ABABCC satA · seenB · atA · sheenB · faceC · placeC
- 4 ABABCC knowA · thereB · goA · careB · heedC · needC
- 5 ABABCC mindA · suchB · findA · muchB · sameC · blameC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| HERE by the moorway you returned, | 9 | ······˘/˘ |
| And saw the borough lights ahead | 8 | ···/··˘/ |
| That lit your face—all undiscerned | 9 | ········˘ |
| To be in a week the face of the dead, | 10 | ·········· |
| And you told of the charm of that haloed view | 11 | ········/˘· |
| That never again would beam on you. | 9 | ·/˘˘/···· |
| And on your left you passed the spot | 9 | ······˘·· |
| Where eight days later you were to lie, | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| And be spoken of as one who was not; | 10 | ··/˘······ |
| Beholding it with a cursory eye | 10 | ˘/˘···/˘˘· |
| As alien from you, though under its tree | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| You soon would halt everlastingly. | 9 | ········· |
| I drove not with you . . . Yet had I sat | 9 | ········· |
| At your side that eve I should not have seen | 10 | ·········· |
| That the countenance I was glancing at | 10 | ··/˘˘··/˘· |
| Had a last-time look in the flickering sheen, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Nor have read the writing upon your face, | 10 | ····/˘···· |
| “I go hence soon to my resting-place; | 9 | ······/˘· |
| “You may miss me then. But I shall not know | 10 | ·········· |
| How many times you visit me there, | 9 | ·/˘··/˘·· |
| Or what your thoughts are, or if you go | 9 | ········· |
| There never at all. And I shall not care. | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Should you censure me I shall take no heed | 10 | ··/˘······ |
| And even your praises I shall not need.” | 10 | ·/˘·/˘···· |
| True: never you’ll know. And you will not mind. | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| But shall I then slight you because of such? | 10 | ·········· |
| Dear ghost, in the past did you ever find | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| The thought “What profit?” move me much | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Yet the fact indeed remains the same, | 9 | ···˘/˘/·· |
| You are past love, praise, indifference, blame. | 10 | ·····˘/˘˘· |
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.