In Time of 'The Breaking of Nations'

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



Only a man harrowing clods
In a slow silent walk
With an old horse that stumbles and nods
Half asleep as they stalk.

Only thin smoke without flame
From the heaps of couch-grass;
Yet this will go onward the same
Though Dynasties pass.

Yonder a maid and her wight
Come whispering by:
War's annals will cloud into night
Ere their story die.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 25, 2023

19 sec read
455

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABAB CACA DEDE
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 345
Words 64
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 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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