Analysis of The Levelled Churchyard

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



"O passenger, pray list and catch
   Our sighs and piteous groans,
Half stifled in this jumbled patch
   Of wrenched memorial stones!

"We late-lamented, resting here,
   Are mixed to human jam,
And each to each exclaims in fear,
   'I know not which I am!'

"The wicked people have annexed
   The verses on the good;
A roaring drunkard sports the text
   Teetotal Tommy should!

"Where we are huddled none can trace,
   And if our names remain,
They pave some path or p-ing place
   Where we have never lain!

"There's not a modest maiden elf
   But dreads the final Trumpet,
Lest half of her should rise herself,
   And half some local strumpet!

"From restorations of Thy fane,
   From smoothings of Thy sward,
From zealous Churchmen's pick and plane
   Deliver us O Lord! Amen!"


Scheme ABAB XCXC DEDE FGFG HXHD GXGX
Poetic Form Quatrain  (83%)
Metre 11001101 101011 11001101 1101001 11010101 111101 01110101 111111 01010110 010101 01010101 1101 11110111 0110101 11111111 111101 11010101 1101010 11101101 011101 1010111 11111 1101101 01011101
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 785
Words 134
Sentences 8
Stanzas 6
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 24
Letters per line (avg) 24
Words per line (avg) 5
Letters per stanza (avg) 97
Words per stanza (avg) 22
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 12, 2023

40 sec read
185

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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