Analysis of Rome: The Vatican--Sala Delle Muse (1887)
Thomas Hardy 1840 (Stinsford) – 1928 (Dorchester, Dorset)
I sat in the Muses' Hall at the mid of the day,
And it seemed to grow still, and the people to pass away,
And the chiselled shapes to combine in a haze of sun,
Till beside a Carrara column there gleamed forth One.
She was nor this nor that of those beings divine,
But each and the whole--an essence of all the Nine;
With tentative foot she neared to my halting-place,
A pensive smile on her sweet, small, marvellous face.
"Regarded so long, we render thee sad?" said she.
"Not you," sighed I, "but my own inconstancy!
I worship each and each; in the morning one,
And then, alas! another at sink of sun.
"To-day my soul clasps Form; but where is my troth
Of yesternight with Tune: can one cleave to both?"
- "Be not perturbed," said she. "Though apart in fame,
As I and my sisters are one, those, too, are the same.
- "But my loves go further--to Story, and Dance, and Hymn,
The lover of all in a sun-sweep is fool to whim -
Is swayed like a river-weed as the ripples run!"
- "Nay, wight, thou sway'st not. These are but phases of one;
"And that one is I; and I am projected from thee,
One that out of thy brain and heart thou causest to be -
Extern to thee nothing. Grieve not, nor thyself becall,
Woo where thou wilt; and rejoice thou canst love at all!
Scheme | AABB CCDD EEBB FFGG HHBB EEII |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain |
Metre | 1100101101101 01111100101101 001111000111 101010101111 111111111001 110011101101 110011111101 0101101111 010111101111 11111110100 11010100101 01010101111 11111111111 111111111 11011110101 1101101111101 1111101100101 0101100111111 111010110101 1111111111011 0111101101011 111111011111 1111011111 111100111111 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 1,262 |
Words | 251 |
Sentences | 15 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 24 |
Letters per line (avg) | 39 |
Words per line (avg) | 10 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 156 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 41 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:14 min read
- 67 Views
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"Rome: The Vatican--Sala Delle Muse (1887)" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 6 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/36452/rome%3A-the-vatican--sala-delle-muse-%281887%29>.
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