She at His Funeral
THEY bear him to his resting-place—In slow procession sweeping by;I follow at a stranger’s space;His kindred they, his sweetheart I.Unchanged my gown of garish dye,Though sable-sad is their attire;But they stand round with griefless eye,Whilst my regret consumes like fire!
Words in this poem
- garish a.
- Showy; dazzling; ostentatious; attracting or exciting attention. [Cf. OE. gauren to stare; of uncertain origin. Cf. gairish.]
- griefless a.
- Without grief. Huloet.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
She at His Funeral is in the public domain. This text is taken from Wessex Poems and Other Verses, Project Gutenberg ebook #3167; 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, She at His Funeral, in Wessex Poems and Other Verses (1898), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3167, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hardy-wessex-poems/she-at-his-funeral.html, id L04446.
Form and metre
She at His Funeral is 8 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABABBCBC. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.0 syllables.
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 ABABBCBC placeA · byB · spaceA · iB · dyeB · attireC · eyeB · fireC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| THEY bear him to his resting-place— | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| In slow procession sweeping by; | 8 | ··˘/˘/˘· |
| I follow at a stranger’s space; | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| His kindred they, his sweetheart I. | 8 | ·/˘··/·· |
| Unchanged my gown of garish dye, | 8 | ˘/···/˘· |
| Though sable-sad is their attire; | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| But they stand round with griefless eye, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Whilst my regret consumes like fire! | 8 | ··˘/˘/·/ |
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.