The Ivy-Wife
Thomas Hardy 1840 (Stinsford) – 1928 (Dorchester, Dorset)
I LONGED to love a full-boughed beech
And be as high as he:
I stretched an arm within his reach,
And signalled unity.
But with his drip he forced a breach,
And tried to poison me.
I gave the grasp of partnership
To one of other race--
A plane: he barked him strip by strip
From upper bough to base;
And me therewith; for gone my grip,
My arms could not enlace.
In new affection next I strove
To coll an ash I saw,
And he in trust received my love;
Till with my soft green claw
I cramped and bound him as I wove...
Such was my love: ha-ha!
By this I gained his strength and height
Without his rivalry.
But in my triumph I lost sight
Of afterhaps. Soon he,
Being bark-bound, flagged, snapped, fell outright,
And in his fall felled me!
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 03, 2023
- 43 sec read
- 125 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | ABABAB CDCDCD EFXFEX GBGBGB |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 868 |
Words | 146 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6, 6 |
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"The Ivy-Wife" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 13 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/36519/the-ivy-wife>.
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