The Sun on the Bookcase

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



Once more the cauldron of the sun
Smears the bookcase with winy red,
And here my page is, and there my bed,
And the apple-tree shadows travel along.
Soon their intangible track will be run,
And dusk grow strong
And they have fled.

Yes: now the boiling ball is gone,
And I have wasted another day....
But wasted--wasted, do I say?
Is it a waste to have imagined one
Beyond the hills there, who, anon,
My great deeds done,
Will be mine alway?

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 06, 2023

25 sec read
433

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABBCACB XDDAAAX
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 447
Words 85
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 7, 7

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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