Analysis of I Rose Up As My Custom Is
Thomas Hardy 1840 (Stinsford) – 1928 (Dorchester, Dorset)
I rose up as my custom is
On the eve of All-Souls' day,
And left my grave for an hour or so
To call on those I used to know
Before I passed away.
I visited my former Love
As she lay by her husband's side;
I asked her if life pleased her, now
She was rid of a poet wrung in brow,
And crazed with the ills he eyed;
Who used to drag her here and there
Wherever his fancies led,
And point out pale phantasmal things,
And talk of vain vague purposings
That she discredited.
She was quite civil, and replied,
'Old comrade, is that you?
Well, on the whole, I like my life. -
I know I swore I'd be no wife,
But what was I to do?
'You see, of all men for my sex
A poet is the worst;
Women are practical, and they
Crave the wherewith to pay their way,
And slake their social thirst.
'You were a poet - quite the ideal
That we all love awhile:
But look at this man snoring here -
He's no romantic chanticleer,
Yet keeps me in good style.
'He makes no quest into my thoughts,
But a poet wants to know
What one has felt from earliest days,
Why one thought not in other ways,
And one's Loves of long ago.'
Her words benumbed my fond frail ghost;
The nightmares neighed from their stalls,
The vampires screeched, the harpies flew,
And under the dim dawn I withdrew
To Death's inviolate halls.
Scheme | ABCCB XDEED FXXAX DGHHG XIBBI XJXFJ XCKKC XLGGL |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Etheree (25%) |
Metre | 11111101 1011111 0111111011 11111111 011101 11001101 11110101 11011101 1111010101 0110111 11110101 0101101 011111 011111 110100 11110001 11111 11011111 11111111 111111 11111111 010101 10110001 1011111 011101 100101001 111101 11111101 110101 111011 11110111 1010111 111111001 11110101 0111101 0111111 011111 0101011 010011101 1101001 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,246 |
Words | 258 |
Sentences | 10 |
Stanzas | 8 |
Stanza Lengths | 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5 |
Lines Amount | 40 |
Letters per line (avg) | 24 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 122 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 32 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:18 min read
- 127 Views
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