English Poetry. Thomas Hardy. At Middle-Field Gate in February. Томас Гарди (Харди).

Thomas Hardy (Томас Гарди (Харди))

At Middle-Field Gate in February

The bars are thick with drops that show
As they gather themselves from the fog
Like silver buttons ranged in a row,
And as evenly spaced as if measured, although
They fall at the feeblest jog.

They load the leafless hedge hard by,
And the blades of last year’s grass,
While the fallow ploughland turned up nigh
In raw rolls, clammy and clogging lie –
Too clogging for feet to pass.

How dry it was on a far-back day
When straws hung the hedge and around,
When amid the sheaves in amorous play
In curtained bonnets and light array
Bloomed a bevy now underground!

Bockhampton Lane

Thomas Hardy’s other poems:

1. I Thought, My Heart
2. The Two Houses
3. The Nettles
4. The Inscription
5. The Weary Walker

930

To the dedicated English version of this website

---