Thomas Hardy's:
1. The Self-Unseeing
2. Here is the ancient floor,
3. Footworn and hollowed and thin,
4. Here was the former door
5. Where the dead feet walked in.
6. She sat here in her chair,
7. Smiling into the fire;
8. He who played stood there,
9. Bowing it higher and higher.
10. Childlike, I danced in a dream;
11. Blessings emblazoned that day;
12. Everything glowed with a gleam;
13. Yet we were looking away!
Source
http://www.scribd.com/doc/22128567/The-Self-Unseeing-analysis
Stanza 1
2. It is a memory, past tense.
3. 'and' emphasized movement of people.
Stanza 2
5- 9 His father is dead....His mother is dead (line 6)...The people who once walked there are now dead.
5. Merging of past and present, life is transitory, doesn't stay the same, rhythm is stressed.
8-9 Music getting higher and higher, excitement building.
Stanza 3
10-13. He was so wrapped up in his happiness that he didn't see the bad things coming. Although he can remember their happiness of singing and playing and time would move on, the early part of his life and memories would be tainted by the echoes of present deaths/ Contrast of life and death and well as past and present.
2. It is a memory, past tense.
3. 'and' emphasized movement of people.
Stanza 2
5- 9 His father is dead....His mother is dead (line 6)...The people who once walked there are now dead.
5. Merging of past and present, life is transitory, doesn't stay the same, rhythm is stressed.
8-9 Music getting higher and higher, excitement building.
Stanza 3
10-13. He was so wrapped up in his happiness that he didn't see the bad things coming. Although he can remember their happiness of singing and playing and time would move on, the early part of his life and memories would be tainted by the echoes of present deaths/ Contrast of life and death and well as past and present.
