A Spot by Thomas Hardy
In years defaced and lost, Two sat here, transport-tossed, Lit by a living love The wilted world knew nothing of: Scared momently By gaingivings, Then hoping things That could not be. Of love and us no trace Abides upon the place; The sun and shadows wheel, Season and season sereward steal; Foul days and fair […]
A Sign-Seeker by Thomas Hardy
I MARK the months in liveries dank and dry, The day-tides many-shaped and hued; I see the nightfall shades subtrude, And hear the monotonous hours clang negligently by. I view the evening bonfires of the sun On hills where morning rains have hissed; The eyeless countenance of the mist Pallidly rising when the summer droughts […]
“The Curtains Now Are Drawn” by Thomas Hardy
I The curtains now are drawn, And the spindrift strikes the glass, Blown up the jagged pass By the surly salt sou’-west, And the sneering glare is gone Behind the yonder crest, While she sings to me: “O the dream that thou art my Love, be it thine, And the dream that I am thy […]
A Poet by Thomas Hardy
Attentive eyes, fantastic heed, Assessing minds, he does not need, Nor urgent writs to sup or dine, Nor pledges in the roseate wine. For loud acclaim he does not care By the august or rich or fair, Nor for smart pilgrims from afar, Curious on where his hauntings are. But soon or later, when you […]
A Meeting With Despair by Thomas Hardy
AS evening shaped I found me on a moor Which sight could scarce sustain: The black lean land, of featureless contour, Was like a tract in pain. “This scene, like my own life,” I said, “is one Where many glooms abide; Toned by its fortune to a deadly dun- Lightless on every side. I glanced […]
A Man (In Memory of H. of M.) by Thomas Hardy
I In Casterbridge there stood a noble pile, Wrought with pilaster, bay, and balustrade In tactful times when shrewd Eliza swayed. – On burgher, squire, and clown It smiled the long street down for near a mile II But evil days beset that domicile; The stately beauties of its roof and wall Passed into sordid […]
A King’s Soliloquy [On the Night of His Funeral] by Thomas Hardy
From the slow march and muffled drum, And crowds distrest, And book and bell, at length I have come To my full rest. A ten years’ rule beneath the sun Is wound up here, And what I have done, what left undone, Figures out clear. Yet in the estimate of such It grieves me more […]
In A Wood by Thomas Hardy
Pale beech and pine-tree blue, Set in one clay, Bough to bough cannot you Bide out your day? When the rains skim and skip, Why mar sweet comradeship, Blighting with poison-drip Neighborly spray? Heart-halt and spirit-lame, City-opprest, Unto this wood I came As to a nest; Dreaming that sylvan peace Offered the harrowed ease- Nature […]
“I Sometimes Think” by Thomas Hardy
For F. E. H. I sometimes think as here I sit Of things I have done, Which seemed in doing not unfit To face the sun: Yet never a soul has paused a whit On such-not one. There was that eager strenuous press To sow good seed; There was that saving from distress In the […]
A Death-Day Recalled by Thomas Hardy
Beeny did not quiver, Juliot grew not gray, Thin Valency’s river Held its wonted way. Bos seemed not to utter Dimmest note of dirge, Targan mouth a mutter To its creamy surge. Yet though these, unheeding, Listless, passed the hour Of her spirit’s speeding, She had, in her flower, Sought and loved the places – […]
A Conversation At Dawn by Thomas Hardy
He lay awake, with a harassed air, And she, in her cloud of loose lank hair, Seemed trouble-tried As the dawn drew in on their faces there. The chamber looked far over the sea From a white hotel on a white-stoned quay, And stepping a stride He parted the window-drapery. Above the level horizon spread […]
A Confession To A Friend In Trouble by Thomas Hardy
YOUR troubles shrink not, though I feel them less Here, far away, than when I tarried near; I even smile old smiles-with listlessness- Yet smiles they are, not ghastly mockeries mere. A thought too strange to house within my brain Haunting its outer precincts I discern: -That I will not show zeal again to learn […]
A Commonplace Day by Thomas Hardy
The day is turning ghost, And scuttles from the kalendar in fits and furtively, To join the anonymous host Of those that throng oblivion; ceding his place, maybe, To one of like degree. I part the fire-gnawed logs, Rake forth the embers, spoil the busy flames, and lay the ends Upon the shining dogs; Further […]
A Circular by Thomas Hardy
As ‘legal representative’ I read a missive not my own, On new designs the senders give For clothes, in tints as shown. Here figure blouses, gowns for tea, And presentation-trains of state, Charming ball-dresses, millinery, Warranted up to date. And this gay-pictured, spring-time shout Of Fashion, hails what lady proud? Her who before last year […]
A Christmas Ghost Story by Thomas Hardy
South of the Line, inland from far Durban, A mouldering soldier lies-your countryman. Awry and doubled up are his gray bones, And on the breeze his puzzled phantom moans Nightly to clear Canopus: “I would know By whom and when the All-Earth-gladdening Law Of Peace, brought in by that Man Crucified, Was ruled to be […]
Amabel by Thomas Hardy
I MARKED her ruined hues, Her custom-straitened views, And asked, “Can there indwell My Amabel?” I looked upon her gown, Once rose, now earthen brown; The change was like the knell Of Amabel. Her step’s mechanic ways Had lost the life of May’s; Her laugh, once sweet in swell, Spoilt Amabel. I mused: “Who sings […]
Ah, Are You Digging On My Grave? by Thomas Hardy
“Ah, are you digging on my grave, My loved one? – planting rue?” – “No: yesterday he went to wed One of the brightest wealth has bred. ‘It cannot hurt her now,’ he said, ‘That I should not be true.’” “Then who is digging on my grave, My nearest dearest kin?” – “Ah, no: they […]
After The Visit by Thomas Hardy
Come again to the place Where your presence was as a leaf that skims Down a drouthy way whose ascent bedims The bloom on the farer’s face. Come again, with the feet That were light on the green as a thistledown ball, And those mute ministrations to one and to all Beyond a man’s saying […]
After Schiller by Thomas Hardy
Knight, a true sister-love This heart retains; Ask me no other love, That way lie pains! Calm must I view thee come, Calm see thee go; Tale-telling tears of thine I must not know! ————— The End And that’s the End of the Poem © Poetry Monster, 2021. Poems by topic and subject. Poetry Monster — […]
After A Journey by Thomas Hardy
I come to interview a Voiceless ghost; Whither, O whither will its whim now draw me? Up the cliff, down, till I’m lonely, lost, And the unseen waters’ soliloquies awe me. Where you will next be there’s no knowing, Facing round about me everywhere, With your nut-coloured hair, And gray eyes, and rose-flush coming and […]
Additions: The Fire at Tranter Sweatley’s by Thomas Hardy
They had long met o’ Zundays-her true love and she- And at junketings, maypoles, and flings; But she bode wi’ a thirtover uncle, and he Swore by noon and by night that her goodman should be Naibor Sweatley-a gaffer oft weak at the knee From taking o’ sommat more cheerful than tea- Who tranted, and […]
“According to the Mighty Working” by Thomas Hardy
I When moiling seems at cease In the vague void of night-time, And heaven’s wide roomage stormless Between the dusk and light-time, And fear at last is formless, We call the allurement Peace. II Peace, this hid riot, Change, This revel of quick-cued mumming, This never truly being, This evermore becoming, This spinner’s wheel onfleeing […]
A Wife In London by Thomas Hardy
December 1899 I She sits in the tawny vapour That the Thames-side lanes have uprolled, Behind whose webby fold-on-fold Like a waning taper The street-lamp glimmers cold. A messenger’s knock cracks smartly, Flashed news in her hand Of meaning it dazes to understand Though shaped so shortly: He-he has fallen-in the far South Land… II […]
A Wasted Illness by Thomas Hardy
Through vaults of pain, Enribbed and wrought with groins of ghastliness, I passed, and garish spectres moved my brain To dire distress. And hammerings, And quakes, and shoots, and stifling hotness, blent With webby waxing things and waning things As on I went. “Where lies the end To this foul way?” I asked with weakening […]
A Thunderstorm In Town by Thomas Hardy
She wore a ‘terra-cotta’ dress, And we stayed, because of the pelting storm, Within the hansom’s dry recess, Though the horse had stopped; yea, motionless We sat on, snug and warm. Then the downpour ceased, to my sharp sad pain, And the glass that had screened our forms before Flew up, and out she sprang […]
A Jog-Trot Pair by Thomas Hardy
Who were the twain that trod this track So many times together Hither and back, In spells of certain and uncertain weather? Commonplace in conduct they Who wandered to and fro here Day by day: Two that few dwellers troubled themselves to know here. The very gravel-path was prim That daily they would follow: Borders […]
A Dream Or No by Thomas Hardy
Why go to Saint-Juliot? What’s Juliot to me? I’ve been but made fancy By some necromancy That much of my life claims the spot as its key. Yes. I have had dreams of that place in the West, And a maiden abiding Thereat as in hiding; Fair-eyed and white-shouldered, broad-browed and brown-tressed. And of how, […]
Ye Mariners of England by Thomas Campbell
Ye Mariners of England by Thomas Campbell 1 Ye Mariners of England 2 That guard our native seas, 3 Whose flag has braved, a thousand years, 4 The battle and the breeze– 5 Your glorious standard launch again 6 To match another foe! 7 And sweep through the deep, 8 While the stormy winds do […]
To the Evening Star by Thomas Campbell
To the Evening Star by Thomas Campbell Star that bringest home the bee, And sett’st the weary labourer free! If any star shed peace, ‘tis thou, That send ‘st it from above, Appearing when Heaven’s breath and brow Are sweet as hers we love. Come to the luxuriant skies, Whilst the landscape’s odours rise, Whilst […]
The Last Man by Thomas Campbell
The Last Man by Thomas Campbell All worldly shapes shall melt in gloom, The Sun himself must die, Before this mortal shall assume Its Immortality! I saw a vision in my sleep That gave my spirit strength to sweep Adown the gulf of Time! I saw the last of human mould, That shall Creation’s death […]
The Dirge of Wallace by Thomas Campbell
The Dirge of Wallace by Thomas Campbell When Scotland’s great Regent, our warrior most dear, The debt of his nature did pay, T’ was Edward, the cruel, had reason to fear, And cause to be struck with dismay. At the window of Edward the raven did croak, Though Scotland a widow became; Each tie of […]
The Battle of the Baltic by Thomas Campbell
The Battle of the Baltic by Thomas Campbell Of Nelson and the North Sing the glorious day’s renown, When to battle fierce came forth All the might of Denmark’s crown, And her arms along the deep proudly shone; By each gun the lighted brand In a bold determined hand, And the Prince of all the […]
Song to the Evening Star by Thomas Campbell
Song to the Evening Star by Thomas Campbell 1 Star that bringest home the bee, 2 And sett’st the weary labourer free! 3 If any star shed peace, ’tis thou, 4 That send’st it from above, 5 Appearing when Heaven’s breath and brow 6 Are sweet as hers we love. 7 Come to the luxuriant […]
Ode to Winter by Thomas Campbell
Ode to Winter by Thomas Campbell When first the fiery-mantled sun His heavenly race begun to run; Round the earth and ocean blue, His children four the Seasons flew. First, in green apparel dancing, The young Spring smiled with angel grace; Rosy summer next advancing, Rushed into her sire’s embrace:- Her blue-haired sire, who bade […]
Ode to the Memory of Burns by Thomas Campbell
Ode to the Memory of Burns by Thomas Campbell Soul of the Poet ! wheresoe’er, Reclaimed from earth, thy genius plume Her wings of immortality ; Suspend thy harp in happier sphere, And with thine influence illume The gladness of our jubilee. And fly like fiends from secret spell, Discord and Strife, at Burn’s name, […]
Love And Madness by Thomas Campbell
Love And Madness by Thomas Campbell Hark ! from the battlements of yonder tower The solemn bell has tolled the midnight hour ! Roused from drear visions of distempered sleep, Poor Broderick wakes—in solitude to weep ! “Cease, Memory; cease (the friendless mourner cried) To probe the bosom too severely tried ! Oh ! ever […]
Lord Ullin’s Daughter by Thomas Campbell
Lord Ullin’s Daughter by Thomas Campbell A chieftain, to the Highlands bound, Cries, “Boatman, do not tarry! And I’ll give thee a silver pound To row us o’er the ferry!”– “Now, who be ye, would cross Lochgyle, This dark and stormy weather?” “O, I’m the chief of Ulva’s isle, And this, Lord Ullin’s daughter.– “And […]
Hohenlinden by Thomas Campbell
Hohenlinden by Thomas Campbell 1 On Linden, when the sun was low, 2 All bloodless lay the untrodden snow, 3 And dark as winter was the flow 4 Of Iser, rolling rapidly. 5 But Linden saw another sight 6 When the drum beat at dead of night, 7 Commanding fires of death to light 8 […]
Gertrude of Wyoming by Thomas Campbell
Gertrude of Wyoming by Thomas Campbell PART I On Susquehanna’s side, fair Wyoming! Although the wild-flower on thy ruin’d wall, And roofless homes, a sad remembrance bring, Of what thy gentle people did befall; Yet thou wert once the loveliest land of all That see the Atlantic wave their morn restore. Sweet land! may I […]
Freedom And Love by Thomas Campbell
Freedom And Love by Thomas Campbell How delicious is the winning Of a kiss at love’s beginning, When two mutual hearts are sighing For the knot there’s no untying! Yet remember, ‘Midst our wooing, Love has bliss, but Love has ruing; Other smiles may make you fickle, Tears for other charms may trickle. Love he […]