The Slow Nature (An Incident of Froom Valley)
“THY husband—poor, poor Heart!—is dead—Dead, out by Moreford Rise;A bull escaped the barton-shed,Gored him, and there he lies!”
—“Ha, ha—go away! ’Tis a tale, methink,Thou joker Kit!” laughed she.“I’ve known thee many a year, Kit Twink,And ever hast thou fooled me!”
—“But, Mistress Damon—I can swearThy goodman John is dead!And soon th’lt hear their feet who bearHis body to his bed.”
So unwontedly sad was the merry man’s face—That face which had long deceived—That she gazed and gazed; and then could traceThe truth there; and she believed.
She laid a hand on the dresser-ledge,And scanned far Egdon-side;And stood; and you heard the wind-swept sedgeAnd the rippling Froom; till she cried:
“O my chamber’s untidied, unmade my bedThough the day has begun to wear!‘What a slovenly hussif!’ it will be said,When they all go up my stair!”
She disappeared; and the joker stoodDepressed by his neighbour’s doom,And amazed that a wife struck to widowhoodThought first of her unkempt room.
But a fortnight thence she could take no food,And she pined in a slow decay;While Kit soon lost his mournful moodAnd laughed in his ancient way.
Words in this poem
- twink n.
- A wink; a twinkling.
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
- goodman n.
- A familiar appellation of civility, equivalent to [Good + man]
- unmade a.
- Etym: [Pref. un- not + made.]
- widowhood n.
- The state of being a widow; the time during which a woman is widow; also, rarely, the state of being a widower.
- unkempt a.
- Not combed; disheveled; as, an urchin with unkempt hair. [Pref. un- not + kempt, p. p. of kemb.]
- fortnight n.
- The space of fourteen days; two weeks. [Contr. fr. fourteen nights, our ancestors reckoning time by nights and winters; so, also, seven nights, sennight, a week.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Slow Nature (An Incident of Froom Valley) 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, The Slow Nature (An Incident of Froom Valley), in Wessex Poems and Other Verses (1898), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3167, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hardy-wessex-poems/the-slow-nature-an-incident-of-froom-valley.html, id L04479.
Form and metre
The Slow Nature (An Incident of Froom Valley) is 32 lines in 8 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 81%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.0 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 25% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 ABAB deadA · riseB · shedA · liesB
- 2 ABAB methinkA · sheB · twinkA · meB
- 3 ABAB swearA · deadB · bearA · bedB
- 4 ABAB faceA · deceivedB · traceA · believedB
- 5 ABAB ledgeA · sideB · sedgeA · criedB
- 6 ABAB bedA · wearB · saidA · stairB
- 7 ABAB stoodA · doomB · widowhoodA · roomB
- 8 ABAB foodA · decayB · moodA · wayB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| “THY husband—poor, poor Heart!—is dead— | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Dead, out by Moreford Rise; | 7 | ······· |
| A bull escaped the barton-shed, | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| Gored him, and there he lies!” | 6 | ······ |
| —“Ha, ha—go away! ’Tis a tale, methink, | 10 | ···˘/····· |
| Thou joker Kit!” laughed she. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| “I’ve known thee many a year, Kit Twink, | 8 | ···/···· |
| And ever hast thou fooled me!” | 6 | ·/···· |
| —“But, Mistress Damon—I can swear | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Thy goodman John is dead! | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| And soon th’lt hear their feet who bear | 8 | ········ |
| His body to his bed.” | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| So unwontedly sad was the merry man’s face— | 12 | ········/˘·· |
| That face which had long deceived— | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| That she gazed and gazed; and then could trace | 9 | ········· |
| The truth there; and she believed. | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| She laid a hand on the dresser-ledge, | 9 | ······/˘· |
| And scanned far Egdon-side; | 6 | ······ |
| And stood; and you heard the wind-swept sedge | 9 | ········· |
| And the rippling Froom; till she cried: | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| “O my chamber’s untidied, unmade my bed | 10 | ··/˘··˘/·· |
| Though the day has begun to wear! | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| ‘What a slovenly hussif!’ it will be said, | 10 | ··/˘······ |
| When they all go up my stair!” | 7 | ······· |
| She disappeared; and the joker stood | 9 | ··˘/··/˘· |
| Depressed by his neighbour’s doom, | 7 | ˘/··/˘· |
| And amazed that a wife struck to widowhood | 11 | ·˘/·····/˘˘ |
| Thought first of her unkempt room. | 7 | ····˘/· |
| But a fortnight thence she could take no food, | 10 | ··/······· |
| And she pined in a slow decay; | 8 | ······˘/ |
| While Kit soon lost his mournful mood | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And laughed in his ancient way. | 7 | ····/˘· |
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.