Thomas Hardy Poems

"O lonely workman, standing there
In a dream, why do you stare and stare
At her grave, as no other grave where there?"
...

Wintertime nighs;
But my bereavement-pain
It cannot bring again:
Twice no one dies.
...

That mirror
Which makes of men a transparency,
Who holds that mirror
And bids us such a breast-bare spectacle see
...

(at a Cathedral Service)

THAT from this bright believing band
An outcast I should be,
...

THE two were silent in a sunless church,
Whose mildewed walls, uneven paving-stones,
And wasted carvings passed antique research;
And nothing broke the clock's dull monotones.
...

A Load of brushes and baskets and cradles and chairs
Labours along the street in the rain:
With it a man, a woman, a pony with whiteybrown hairs. --
The man foots in front of the horse with a shambling sway
...

I

I would that folk forgot me quite,
   Forgot me quite!
...

'Whenever I plunge my arm, like this,
In a basin of water, I never miss
The sweet sharp sense of a fugitive day
Fetched back from its thickening shroud of gray.
...

Thy shadow, Earth, from Pole to Central Sea,
Now steals along upon the Moon's meek shine
In even monochrome and curving line
Of imperturbable serenity.
...

I

   "O Lord, why grievest Thou? -
   Since Life has ceased to be
...