Before And After Summer

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



I

Looking forward to the spring
One puts up with anything.
On this February day,
Though the winds leap down the street,
Wintry scourgings seem but play,
And these later shafts of sleet
- Sharper pointed than the first -
And these later snows - the worst -
Are as a half-transparent blind
Riddled by rays from sun behind.

II
Shadows of the October pine
Reach into this room of mine:
On the pine there stands a bird;
He is shadowed with the tree.
Mutely perched he bills no word;
Blank as I am even is he.
For those happy suns are past,
Fore-discerned in winter last.
When went by their pleasure, then?
I, alas, perceived not when.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 11, 2023

36 sec read
116

Quick analysis:

Scheme AABCBCDDEE XFFGHGHIIJJ
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 616
Words 120
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 10, 11

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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