Poems

Poems List

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Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy

The Fire at Tranter Sweatley’s

The Fire at Tranter Sweatley’s
The Fire at Tranter Sweatley’s
They had long met o’ Zundays—her true love and she—
And at junketings, maypoles, and flings;

232
Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy

The Dream-Follower

The Dream-Follower
A dream of mine flew over the mead
To the halls where my old Love reigns;
And it drew me on to follow its lead:
And I stood at her win…

243
Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy

The Darkling Thrush

The Darkling Thrush
The Darkling Thrush
I leant upon a coppice gate,
When Frost was spectre-gray,
And Winter's dregs made desolate
The weakening ey…

249
Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy

The Dead Drummer.

The Dead Drummer.
I
They throw in Drummer Hodge, to rest
Uncoffined--just as found:
His landmark is a kopje-crest
That breaks the veldt around;

244
Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy

The Convergence Of The Twain

The Convergence Of The Twain
I
In a solitude of the sea
Deep from human vanity,
And the Pride of Life that planned her, stilly couches she.
II

205
Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy

The Dame of Athelhall

The Dame of Athelhall
I
"Soul! Shall I see thy face," she said,
"In one brief hour?
And away with thee from a loveless bed
To a far-off sun, to a vi…

260
Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy

The Colonel's Soliloquy (Southampton Docks: October, )

The Colonel's Soliloquy (Southampton Docks: October, )
"The quay recedes. Hurrah! Ahead we go! . . .
It's true I've been accustomed now to home,
And joints get…

187
Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy

The Comet at Valbury or Yell'ham

The Comet at Valbury or Yell'ham
I
It bends far over Yell'ham Plain,
And we, from Yell'ham Height,
Stand and regard its fiery train,
So soon to swim…

225
Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy

The Cave of the Unborn

The Cave of the Unborn
I rose at night and visited
The Cave of the Unborn,
And crowding shapes surrounded me
For tidings of the life to be,
Who lon…

241
Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy

The Caged Thrush Freed and Home Again (Villanelle)

The Caged Thrush Freed and Home Again (Villanelle)
"Men know but little more than we,
Who count us least of things terrene,
How happy days are made to be!

203
Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy

The Bridge of Lodi (Spring, )

The Bridge of Lodi (Spring, )
I
When of tender mind and body
I was moved by minstrelsy,
And that strain "The Bridge of Lodi"
Brought a strange delig…

259
Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy

The Bullfinches

The Bullfinches
Bother Bulleys, let us sing
From the dawn till evening! -
For we know not that we go not
When the day's pale pinions fold
Unto thos…

302
Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy

Song of the Soldiers' Wives

Song of the Soldiers' Wives
I
At last! In sight of home again,
Of home again;
No more to range and roam again
As at that bygone time?
No more …

230
Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy

The Alarm

The Alarm
In Memory of one of the Writer's Family who was a Volunteer during the War
with Napoleon
In a ferny byway
Near the great South-Wessex Highway, …

287
Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy

Shelley's Skylark.

Shelley's Skylark.
Somewhere afield here something lies
In Earth's oblivious eyeless trust
That moved a poet to prophecies -
A pinch of unseen, unguarded…

276
Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy

Song of Hope

Song of Hope
O sweet To-morrow! -
After to-day
There will away
This sense of sorrow.
Then let us borrow
Hope, for a gleaming
Soon will …

267
Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy

She, to Him, IV

She, to Him, IV
This love puts all humanity from me;
I can but maledict her, pray her dead,
For giving love and getting love of thee—
Feeding a heart tha…

246
Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy

She, to Him, II

She, to Him, II
Perhaps, long hence, when I have passed away,
Some other’s feature, accent, thought like mine,
Will carry you back to what I used to say,

219
Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy

She, To Him

She, To Him
I
WHEN you shall see me lined by tool of Time,
My lauded beauties carried off from me,
My eyes no longer stars as in their prime,
My na…

276
Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy

She, To Him IV

She, To Him IV
THIS love puts all humanity from me;
I can but maledict her, pray her dead,
For giving love and getting love of thee--
Feeding a heart tha…

290
Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy

Satires of Circumstance in Fifteen Glimpses VIII: In the St

Satires of Circumstance in Fifteen Glimpses VIII: In the St
He enters, and mute on the edge of a chair
Sits a thin-faced lady, a stranger there,
A type of deca…

216
Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy

She Hears the Storm

She Hears the Storm
There was a time in former years--
While my roof-tree was his--
When I should have been distressed by fears
At such a night as this! …

272
Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy

Rome: The Vatican--Sala Delle Muse ()

Rome: The Vatican--Sala Delle Muse ()
I sat in the Muses' Hall at the mid of the day,
And it seemed to grow still, and the people to pass away,
And the chisell…

237
Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy

San Sebastian

San Sebastian
With Thoughts of Sergeant M---- (Pensioner), who died -
"WHY, Sergeant, stray on the Ivel Way,
As though at home there were spectres rife?

203