Thomas Hardy

When he lit the candles there,
And the light fell on his hand,
And it trembled as he scanned
Her and me, his vanquished air…

There it stands, though alas, what a little of her
Shows in its cold white look!
Not her glance, glide, or smile; not a tittle of her
Voice like the purl of a brook;…

Said the red-cloaked crone
In a whispered moan:‘The dead man was limp
When laid in his chest;
Yea, limp; and why…

IThere dwells a mighty pair –
Slow, statuesque, intense –
Amid the vague Immense:
None can their chronicle declare,…

My spirit will not haunt the mound
Above my breast,
But travel, memory-possessed,
To where my tremulous being found…

The sparrow dips in his wheel-rut bath,
The sun grows passionate-eyed,
And boils the dew to smoke by the paddock-path;
As strenuously we stride, –…

(Mary H.)That ‘Sacred to the Memory’
Is clearly carven there I own,
And all may think that on the stone
The words have been inscribed by me…

When I set out for Lyonnesse,
A hundred miles away,
The rime was on the spray, And starlight lit my lonesomeness When I set out for Lyonnesse
A hundred miles away. What would bechance at Lyonnesse

The cold moon hangs to the sky by its horn,
And centres its gaze on me;
The stars, like eyes in reverie,
Their westering as for a while forborne,…

(A Tribute to Sir H. Bishop)I hear that maiden still
Of Keinton Mandeville
Singing, in flights that played
As wind-wafts through us all,…

‘A woman never agreed to it!’ said my knowing friend to me.
‘That one thing she’d refuse to do for Solomon’s mines in fee:
No woman ever will make herself look older than she is.’
I did not answer; but I thought, ‘You err there, ancient Quiz.’It took a rare one, true, to do it; for she was surely rare –…

'It is a foolish thing,' said I,'To bear with such, and pass it by;
Yet so I do,
I know not why!'And at each clash I would
That if I had acted otherwiseI might have saved me many sighs.

(On Yell’ham Hill)In my loamy nook
As I dig my hole
I observe men look
At a stone, and sigh…

That no man schemed it is my hope –
Yea, that it fell by will and scope
Of That Which some enthrone,
And for whose meaning myriads grope.For I would not that of my kind…

I found me in a great surging space,
At either end a door,
And I said: ‘What is this giddying place,
With no firm-fixéd floor,…

He was leaning by a face,
He was looking into eyes,
And he knew a trysting-place,
And he heard seductive sighs;…

Of tides that toss the souls of men
Some are foreseen, and weathered warefully;
More burst at flood, none witting why or when,
And are called Destiny.– Years past there was a turnip-hoer,…

IHe sees the world as a boisterous place
Where all things bear a laughing face,
And humorous scenes go hourly on,
Does John.IIThey find the world a pleasant place…

When a night in November
Blew forth its bleared airs
An infant descended
His birth-chamber stairs…

I sat. It all was past;
Hope never would hail again;
Fair days had ceased at a blast,
The world was a darkened den.The beauty and dream were gone,…

I was sitting,
She was knitting,
And the portraits of our fore-folk hung around;
When there struck on us a sigh;…

Three picture-drawn people stepped out of their frames –
The blast, how it blew!
And the white-shrouded candles flapped smoke-headed flames;
– Three picture-drawn people came down from their frames,…

Gray prinked with rose,
White tipped with blue,
Shoes with gay hose,
Sleeves of chrome hue;…

Glad old house of lichened stonework,
What I owed you in my lone work,
Noon and night!
Whensoever faint or ailing,…