For a Book by Thomas Hardy
With searching feet, through dark circuitous ways,I plunged and stumbled; round me, far and near,Quaint hordes of eyeless phantoms did appear,Twisting and turning in a bootless chase, --When, like an exile given by God's graceTo feel once more a human atmosphere,I caught the world's first murmur, large and clear,Flung from a singing river's endless race.
Then, through a magic twilight from below,I heard its grand sad song as in a dream:Life's wild infinity of mirth and woeIt sang me; and, with many a changing gleam,Across the music of its onward flowI saw the cottage lights of Wessex beam.
Words in this poem
- quaint a.
- Prudent; wise; hence, crafty; artful; wily. [OE. queint, queynte, coint, prudent, wise, cunning, pretty, odd, OF. cointe cultivated, amiable, agreeable, neat, fr. L. cognitus known, p. p. of cognoscere to ]
- eyeless a.
- Without eyes; blind.
- bootless a.
- Unavailing; unprofitable; useless; without advantage or success. [From Boot profit.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
For a Book by Thomas Hardy is in the public domain. This text is taken from Children of the Night, Project Gutenberg ebook #313; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Edwin Arlington Robinson, For a Book by Thomas Hardy, in The Children of the Night (1897), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #313, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/robinson-children-of-night/for-a-book-by-thomas-hardy.html, id L08008.
Form and metre
For a Book by Thomas Hardy is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 21% 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 -AABBAAB ways · nearA · appearA · chaseB · graceB · atmosphereA · clearA · raceB
- 2 ABABAB belowA · dreamB · woeA · gleamB · flowA · beamB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| With searching feet, through dark circuitous ways, | 10 | ·/˘···˘/˘· |
| I plunged and stumbled; round me, far and near, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Quaint hordes of eyeless phantoms did appear, | 10 | ···/˘/˘·˘/ |
| Twisting and turning in a bootless chase, -- | 10 | /˘·/˘··/˘· |
| When, like an exile given by God's grace | 10 | ···/·/˘··· |
| To feel once more a human atmosphere, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| I caught the world's first murmur, large and clear, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Flung from a singing river's endless race. | 10 | ···/˘/˘/˘· |
| Then, through a magic twilight from below, | 10 | ···/˘/···· |
| I heard its grand sad song as in a dream: | 10 | ·········· |
| Life's wild infinity of mirth and woe | 10 | ··˘/˘˘···· |
| It sang me; and, with many a changing gleam, | 10 | ·····/·/˘· |
| Across the music of its onward flow | 10 | ˘/·/˘··/˘· |
| I saw the cottage lights of Wessex beam. | 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.