Analysis of Domicilium
Thomas Hardy 1840 (Stinsford) – 1928 (Dorchester, Dorset)
It faces west, and round the back and sides
High beeches, bending, hang a veil of boughs,
And sweep against the roof. Wild honeysucks
Climb on the walls, and seem to sprout a wish
(If we may fancy wish of trees and plants)
To overtop the apple trees hard-by.
Red roses, lilacs, variegated box
Are there in plenty, and such hardy flowers
As flourish best untrained. Adjoining these
Are herbs and esculents; and farther still
A field; then cottages with trees, and last
The distant hills and sky.
Behind, the scene is wilder. Heath and furze
Are everything that seems to grow and thrive
Upon the uneven ground. A stunted thorn
Stands here and there, indeed; and from a pit
An oak uprises, Springing from a seed
Dropped by some bird a hundred years ago.
In days bygone--
Long gone--my father's mother, who is now
Blest with the blest, would take me out to walk.
At such a time I once inquired of her
How looked the spot when first she settled here.
The answer I remember. 'Fifty years
Have passed since then, my child, and change has marked
The face of all things. Yonder garden-plots
And orchards were uncultivated slopes
O'ergrown with bramble bushes, furze and thorn:
That road a narrow path shut in by ferns,
Which, almost trees, obscured the passers-by.
Our house stood quite alone, and those tall firs
And beeches were not planted. Snakes and efts
Swarmed in the summer days, and nightly bats
Would fly about our bedrooms. Heathcroppers
Lived on the hills, and were our only friends;
So wild it was when we first settled here.'
Scheme | AXAXXB XCXXXB AXDXXX XXXXEXXXXDXB CAXAXE |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1101010101 111010111 01010111 1101011101 1111011101 11010111 110110001 11010011010 1101010101 11010101 0111001101 010101 0101110101 110111101 01001010101 1101010101 11110101 1111010101 011 1111010111 1101111111 11011101010 1101111101 0101010101 1111110111 0111110101 010011 111010101 1101011011 111010101 10111010111 010110101 1001010101 11011011 11010010101 1111111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,534 |
Words | 275 |
Sentences | 16 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6, 12, 6 |
Lines Amount | 36 |
Letters per line (avg) | 33 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 241 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 54 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 27, 2023
- 1:22 min read
- 247 Views
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"Domicilium" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 6 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/36357/domicilium>.
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