Analysis of Self- Unconscious

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



Along the way
He walked that day,
Watching shapes that reveries limn,
And seldom he
Had eyes to see
The moment that encompassed him.

Bright yellowhammers
Made mirthful clamours,
And billed long straws with a bustling air,
And bearing their load
Flew up the road
That he followed, alone, without interest there.

From bank to ground
And over and round
They sidled along the adjoining hedge;
Sometimes to the gutter
Their yellow flutter
Would dip from the nearest slatestone ledge.

The smooth sea-line
With a metal shine,
And flashes of white, and a sail thereon,
He would also descry
With a half-wrapt eye
Between the projects he mused upon.

Yes, round him were these
Earth's artistries,
But specious plans that came to his call
Did most engage
His pilgrimage,
While himself he did not see at all.

Dead now as sherds
Are the yellow birds,
And all that mattered has passed away;
Yet God, the Elf,
Now shows him that self
As he was, and should have been shown, that day.

O it would have been good
Could he then have stood
At a focussed distance, and conned the whole,
But now such vision
Is mere derision,
Nor soothes his body nor saves his soul.

Not much, some may
Incline to say,
To see in him, had it all been seen.
Nay! he is aware
A thing was there
That loomed with an immortal mien.


Scheme AABCCX DDEFFE GGHIIH BBBEXB DDJXXJ DDAKKA LLMBBM AABEEB
Poetic Form
Metre 0101 1111 10111001 0101 1111 01010101 11 111 0111101001 01011 1101 11100101101 1111 01001 1100100101 011010 11010 11101011 0111 10101 0101100101 11101 10111 010101101 11101 11 110111111 1101 1100 101111111 1111 10101 011101101 1101 11111 1110111111 111111 11111 1010100101 11110 11010 111101111 1111 0111 110111111 11101 0111 11110101
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 1,245
Words 237
Sentences 11
Stanzas 8
Stanza Lengths 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6
Lines Amount 48
Letters per line (avg) 21
Words per line (avg) 5
Letters per stanza (avg) 127
Words per stanza (avg) 29
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 26, 2023

1:11 min read
93

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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