Analysis of The Elopement

Thomas Hardy 1840 (Stinsford) – 1928 (Dorchester, Dorset)



'A woman never agreed to it!' said my knowing friend to me.
'That one thing she'd refuse to do for Solomon's mines in fee:
No woman ever will make herself look older than she is.'
I did not answer; but I thought, 'You err there, ancient Quiz.'

It took a rare one, true, to do it; for she was surely rare -
As rare a soul at that sweet time of her life as she was fair.
And urging motives, too, were strong, for ours was a passionate case,
Yea, passionate enough to lead to freaking with that young face.

I have told no one about it, should perhaps make few believe,
But I think it over now that life looms dull and years bereave,
How blank we stood at our bright wits' end, two frail barks in distress,
How self-regard in her was slain by her large tenderness.

I said: 'The only chance for us in a crisis of this kind
Is going it thorough!' - 'Yes,' she calmly breathed. 'Well, I don't mind.'
And we blanched her dark locks ruthlessly: set wrinkles on her brow;
Ay - she was a right rare woman then, whatever she may be now.

That night we heard a coach drive up, and questions asked below.
'A gent with an elderly wife, sir,' was returned from the bureau.
And the wheels went rattling on, and free at last from public ken
We washed all off in her chamber and restored her youth again.

How many years ago it was! Some fifty can it be
Since that adventure held us, and she played old wife to me?
But in time convention won her, as it wins all women at last,
And now she is rich and respectable, and time has buried the past.


Scheme AABB CCDD EEXX FFGG HHII AAJJ
Poetic Form Quatrain  (83%)
Metre 0101001111110111 111101111100101 110101101110111 11110111111101 110111111111101 110111111011111 01010101110101001 110001111101111 111110111011101 111110111110101 1111110111111001 11010011101100 110101110010111 110110111011111 011011100110101 111011101101111 11110111010101 0111100111011010 001110101111101 111100100010101 11010111110111 11010110111111 1010101011111011 01111001000111001
Closest metre Iambic octameter
Characters 1,507
Words 308
Sentences 18
Stanzas 6
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 24
Letters per line (avg) 48
Words per line (avg) 12
Letters per stanza (avg) 192
Words per stanza (avg) 50
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:31 min read
60

Thomas Hardy

Thomas Hardy, was not a Scottish Minister, not a Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland nor a Professor of Eccesiastical History at Edinburgh University. more…

All Thomas Hardy poems | Thomas Hardy Books

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