The Oxen

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




Christmas Eve, and twelve of the clock.
"Now they are all on their knees,"
An elder said as we sat in a flock
By the embers in hearthside ease.

We pictured the meek mild creatures where
They dwelt in their strawy pen,
Nor did it occur to one of us there
To doubt they were kneeling then.

So fair a fancy few would weave
In these years! Yet, I feel,
If someone said on Christmas Eve,
"Come; see the oxen kneel

"In the lonely barton by yonder coomb
Our childhood used to know,"
I should go with him in the gloom,
Hoping it might be so.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

32 sec read
97

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABAB CDCD EFEF GHGH
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 526
Words 110
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4

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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