In The Moonlight

Thomas Hardy 1840 (Stinsford) – 1928 (Dorchester, Dorset)



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

"If your great gaunt eyes so importune
Her soul by the shine of this corpse-cold moon,
Maybe you'll raise her phantom soon!"

"Why, fool, it is what I would rather see
Than all the living folk there be;
But alas, there is no such joy for me!"

"Ah - she was one you loved, no doubt,
Through good and evil, through rain and drought,
And when she passed, all your sun went out?"

"Nay: she was the woman I did not love,
Whom all the other were ranked above,
Whom during her life I thought nothing of."

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 28, 2023

36 sec read
178

Quick analysis:

Scheme AAA BBB CCC DDD EEE
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 613
Words 127
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 3, 3, 3, 3, 3

Thomas Hardy

Thomas Hardy, was not a Scottish Minister, not a Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland nor a Professor of Eccesiastical History at Edinburgh University. more…

All Thomas Hardy poems | Thomas Hardy Books

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