The Shadow On The Stone
Thomas Hardy 1840 (Stinsford) – 1928 (Dorchester, Dorset)
I went by the Druid stone
That broods in the garden white and lone,
And I stopped and looked at the shifting shadows
That at some moments fall thereon
From the tree hard by with a rhythmic swing,
And they shaped in my imagining
To the shade that a well-known head and shoulders
Threw there when she was gardening.
I thought her behind my back,
Yea, her I long had learned to lack,
And I said: ‘I am sure you are standing behind me,
Though how do you get into this old track?’
And there was no sound but the fall of a leaf
As a sad response; and to keep down grief
I would not turn my head to discover
That there was nothing in my belief.
Yet I wanted to look and see
That nobody stood at the back of me;
But I thought once more: ‘Nay, I’ll not unvision
A shape which, somehow, there may be.’
So I went on softly from the glade,
And left her behind me throwing her shade,
As she were indeed an apparition—
My head unturned lest my dream should fade.
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 57 sec read
- 126 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | AAXXBBXB CCDCEEXE DDADFFXF |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 968 |
Words | 193 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8 |
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"The Shadow On The Stone" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 13 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/36559/the-shadow-on-the-stone>.
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