The Contretemps Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABAAB CDCCD EFEEF GHGGH EIEEJ KLKKL MNMMN EDLED OEOOE LPLLP EQEEEQ| A forward rush by the lamp in the gloom | A |
| And we clasped and almost kissed | B |
| But she was not the woman whom | A |
| I had promised to meet in the thawing brume | A |
| On that harbour bridge nor was I he of her tryst | B |
| - | |
| So loosening from me swift she said | C |
| O why why feign to be | D |
| The one I had meant to whom I have sped | C |
| To fly with being so sorrily wed | C |
| 'Twas thus and thus that she upbraided me | D |
| - | |
| My assignation had struck upon | E |
| Some others' like it I found | F |
| And her lover rose on the night anon | E |
| And then her husband entered on | E |
| The lamplit snowflaked sloppiness around | F |
| - | |
| Take her and welcome man he cried | G |
| I wash my hands of her | H |
| I'll find me twice as good a bride | G |
| All this to me whom he had eyed | G |
| Plainly as his wife's planned deliverer | H |
| - | |
| And next the lover Little I knew | E |
| Madam you had a third | I |
| Kissing here in my very view | E |
| Husband and lover then withdrew | E |
| I let them and I told them not they erred | J |
| - | |
| Why not Well there faced she and I | K |
| Two strangers who'd kissed or near | L |
| Chancewise To see stand weeping by | K |
| A woman once embraced will try | K |
| The tension of a man the most austere | L |
| - | |
| So it began and I was young | M |
| She pretty by the lamp | N |
| As flakes came waltzing down among | M |
| The waves of her clinging hair that hung | M |
| Heavily on her temples dark and damp | N |
| - | |
| And there alone still stood we two | E |
| She once cast off for me | D |
| Or so it seemed while night ondrew | L |
| Forcing a parley what should do | E |
| We twain hearts caught in one catastrophe | D |
| - | |
| In stranded souls a common strait | O |
| Wakes latencies unknown | E |
| Whose impulse may precipitate | O |
| A life long leap The hour was late | O |
| And there was the Jersey boat with its funnel agroan | E |
| - | |
| Is wary walking worth much pother | L |
| It grunted as still it stayed | P |
| One pairing is as good as another | L |
| Where is all venture Take each other | L |
| And scrap the oaths that you have aforetime made | P |
| - | |
| Of the four involved there walks but one | E |
| On earth at this late day | Q |
| And what of the chapter so begun | E |
| In that odd complex what was done | E |
| Well happiness comes in full to none | E |
| Let peace lie on lulled lips I will not say | Q |
Thomas Hardy
(1)
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About The Contretemps
The Contretemps is a poem by Thomas Hardy. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.
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