Thomas Hardy: The Darkling Thrush
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The Darkling Thrush

6/2/1840-1/11/1928


I leant upon a coppice gate
         When Frost was spectre-gray,
And Winter's dregs made desolate
         The weakening eye of day.
The tangled bine-stems scored the sky
         Like strings from broken lyres,
And all mankind that haunted nigh
         Had sought their household fires.

The land's sharp features seemed to be
         The Century's corpse outleant,
His crypt the cloudy canopy,
         The wind his death-lament.
The ancient pulse of germ and birth
         Was shrunken hard and dry,
And every spirit upon earth
         Seemed fervourless as I.

At once a voice outburst among
         The bleak twigs overhead
In a full-hearted evensong
         Of joy illimited;
An aged thrush, frail, gaunt, and small,
         In blast-beruffled plume,
Had chosen thus to fling his soul
         Upon the growing gloom.

So little cause for carollings
         Of such ecstatic sound
Was written on terrestrial things
         Afar or nigh around,
That I could think there trembled through
         His happy good-night air
Some blessed Hope, whereof he knew
         And I was unaware.


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