To a Lady Offended by a Book of the Writer’s
NOW that my page upcloses, doomed, maybe,Never to press thy cosy cushions more,Or wake thy ready Yeas as heretofore,Or stir thy gentle vows of faith in me:
Knowing thy natural receptivity,I figure that, as flambeaux banish eve,My sombre image, warped by insidious heaveOf those less forthright, must lose place in thee.
So be it. I have borne such. Let thy dreamsOf me and mine diminish day by day,And yield their space to shine of smugger things;Till I shape to thee but in fitful gleams,And then in far and feeble visitings,And then surcease. Truth will be truth alway.
Words in this poem
- maybe adv.
- Perhaps; possibly; peradventure. [For it may be.]
- receptivity n.
- The state or quality of being receptive. [Cf. F. réceptivité.]
- sombre n.
- Gloom; obscurity; duskiness; somberness.
- insidious a.
- Lying in wait; watching an opportunity to insnare or entrap; deceitful; sly; treacherous; -- said of persons; as, the insidious foe. [L. insidiosus, fr. insidiae an ambush, fr. insidere to sit in; pref. in- + sedere to sit: cf. F. insidieux. See Sit.]
- forthright adv.
- Straight forward; in a straight direction. Sir P. [Forth, adv. + right, adv.]
- fitful a.
- Full of fits; irregularly variable; impulsive and unstable. [From 7th Fit.]
- surcease v. t.
- To cause to cease; to end.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To a Lady Offended by a Book of the Writer’s 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, To a Lady Offended by a Book of the Writer’s, in Wessex Poems and Other Verses (1898), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3167, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hardy-wessex-poems/to-a-lady-offended-by-a-book-of-the-writer-s.html, id L04474.
Form and metre
To a Lady Offended by a Book of the Writer’s is 14 lines in 3 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 80%). 90% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.8 syllables. 4 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 14% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 -AA- maybe · moreA · heretoforeA · me
- 2 -AA- receptivity · eveA · heaveA · thee
- 3 A-BAB- dreamsA · day · thingsB · gleamsA · visitingsB · alway
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 |
|---|---|---|
| NOW that my page upcloses, doomed, maybe, | 10 | ········/˘ |
| Never to press thy cosy cushions more, | 9 | /···/˘/˘· |
| Or wake thy ready Yeas as heretofore, | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| Or stir thy gentle vows of faith in me: | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Knowing thy natural receptivity, | 8 | /·/˘/·/˘ |
| I figure that, as flambeaux banish eve, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| My sombre image, warped by insidious heave | 11 | ·/˘/˘··˘/˘· |
| Of those less forthright, must lose place in thee. | 10 | ···//····· |
| So be it. I have borne such. Let thy dreams | 10 | ·········· |
| Of me and mine diminish day by day, | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| And yield their space to shine of smugger things; | 10 | ·········· |
| Till I shape to thee but in fitful gleams, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| And then in far and feeble visitings, | 9 | ·····/˘/˘ |
| And then surcease. Truth will be truth alway. | 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.