Analysis of The Masked Face

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



I found me in a great surging space,
At either end a door,
And I said: "What is this giddying place,
With no firm-fixéd floor,
That I knew not of before?"
"It is Life," said a mask-clad face.

I asked: "But how do I come here,
Who never wished to come;
Can the light and air be made more clear,
The floor more quietsome,
And the doors set wide? They numb
Fast-locked, and fill with fear."

The mask put on a bleak smile then,
And said, "O vassal-wight,
There once complained a goosequill pen
To the scribe of the Infinite
Of the words it had to write
Because they were past its ken."


Scheme ABABBA XCDCCD EFEXFE
Poetic Form
Metre 111001101 110101 01111111 111111 1111101 11110111 11111111 110111 101011111 0111 0011111 110111 01110111 011101 1101011 10110100 1011111 0110111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 573
Words 119
Sentences 6
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 6, 6, 6
Lines Amount 18
Letters per line (avg) 24
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 145
Words per stanza (avg) 38
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on May 03, 2023

34 sec read
141

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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