Not far from Mellstock–so tradition saith – Where barrows, bulging as they bosoms were Of Multimammia stretched supinely there, Catch night and noon the tempest’s wanton breath, A battle, desperate doubtless unto death, Was one time fought. The outlook, lone and bare, The towering hawk and passing raven share, And all the upland round is […]

“It shall be dark unto you, that ye shall not divine.” Micah iii. 6. I asked the Lord: “Sire, is this true Which hosts of theologians hold, That when we creatures censure you For shaping griefs and ails untold (Deeming them punishments undue) You rage, as Moses wrote of old? When we exclaim: ‘Beneficent He […]

“War ends, and he’s returning Early; yea, The evening next to-morrow’s!” – –This I say To her, whom I suspiciously survey, Holding my husband’s letter To her view. – She glanced at it but lightly, And I knew That one from him that day had reached her too. There was no time for scruple; Secretly […]

The Roman Road runs straight and bare As the pale parting-line in hair Across the heath. And thoughtful men Contrast its days of Now and Then, And delve, and measure, and compare; Visioning on the vacant air Helmed legionaries, who proudly rear The Eagle, as they pace again The Roman Road. But no tall brass-helmed […]

Gilbert had sailed to India’s shore, And I was all alone: My lord came in at my open door And said, “O fairest one!” He leant upon the slant bureau, And sighed, “I am sick for thee!” “My lord,” said I, “pray speak not so, Since wedded wife I be.” Leaning upon the slant bureau, […]

I While I watch the Christmas blaze Paint the room with ruddy rays, Something makes my vision glide To the frosty scene outside. There, to reach a rotting berry, Toils a thrush,–constrained to very Dregs of food by sharp distress, Taking such with thankfulness. Why, O starving bird, when I One day’s joy would justify, […]

I do not see the hills around, Nor mark the tints the copses wear; I do not note the grassy ground And constellated daisies there. I hear not the contralto note Of cuckoos hid on either hand, The whirr that shakes the nighthawk’s throat When eve’s brown awning hoods the land. Some say each songster, […]

When the wasting embers redden the chimney-breast, And Life’s bare pathway looms like a desert track to me, And from hall and parlour the living have gone to their rest, My perished people who housed them here come back to me. They come and seat them around in their mouldy places, Now and then bending […]

In the middle of the night Mother’s spirit came and spoke to me, Looking weariful and white – As ’twere untimely news she broke to me. “O my daughter, joyed are you To own the weetless child you mother there; ‘Men may search the wide world through,’ You think, ‘nor find so fair another there!’ […]

(J. H. 1813-1904) There’s no more to be done, or feared, or hoped; None now need watch, speak low, and list, and tire; No irksome crease outsmoothed, no pillow sloped Does she require. Blankly we gaze. We are free to go or stay; Our morrow’s anxious plans have missed their aim; Whether we leave to-night […]

(MARTY SOUTH’S REVERIE) I We work here together In blast and breeze; He fills the earth in, I hold the trees. He does not notice That what I do Keeps me from moving And chills me through. He has seen one fairer I feel by his eye, Which skims me as though I were not […]

(M. H. 1772-1857) She told how they used to form for the country dances – “The Triumph,” “The New-rigged Ship” – To the light of the guttering wax in the panelled manses, And in cots to the blink of a dip. She spoke of the wild “poussetting” and “allemanding” On carpet, on oak, and on […]

I plodded to Fairmile Hill-top, where A maiden one fain would guard From every hazard and every care Advanced on the roadside sward. I wondered how succeeding suns Would shape her wayfarings, And wished some Power might take such ones Under Its warding wings. The busy breeze came up the hill And smartened her cheek […]

I pace along, the rain-shafts riddling me, Mile after mile out by the moorland way, And up the hill, and through the ewe-leaze gray Into the lane, and round the corner tree; Where, as my clothing clams me, mire-bestarred, And the enfeebled light dies out of day, Leaving the liquid shades to reign, I say, […]

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! I should have murmured anxiously, “The pricking rain strikes cold; His road is bare of hedge or tree, And he is getting old.” But now the fitful […]

I saw him steal the light away That haunted in her eye: It went so gently none could say More than that it was there one day And missing by-and-by. I watched her longer, and he stole Her lily tincts and rose; All her young sprightliness of soul Next fell beneath his cold control, And […]

A time there was–as one may guess And as, indeed, earth’s testimonies tell – Before the birth of consciousness, When all went well. None suffered sickness, love, or loss, None knew regret, starved hope, or heart-burnings; None cared whatever crash or cross Brought wrack to things. If something ceased, no tongue bewailed, If something winced […]

(For other forms of this legend–first met with in the second century–see Origen contra Celsum; the Talmud; Sepher Toldoth Jeschu; quoted fragments of lost Apocryphal gospels; Strauss, Haeckel; etc.) Yea, as I sit here, crutched, and cricked, and bent, I think of Panthera, who underwent Much from insidious aches in his decline; But his aches […]

O sweet sincerity! – Where modern methods be What scope for thine and thee? Life may be sad past saying, Its greens for ever graying, Its faiths to dust decaying; And youth may have foreknown it, And riper seasons shown it, But custom cries: “Disown it: “Say ye rejoice, though grieving, Believe, while unbelieving, Behold, […]

I rose at night, and visited The Cave of the Unborn: And crowding shapes surrounded me For tidings of the life to be, Who long had prayed the silent Head To haste its advent morn. Their eyes were lit with artless trust, Hope thrilled their every tone; “A scene the loveliest, is it not? A […]