To Life

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



O life with the sad seared face,
   I weary of seeing thee,
And thy draggled cloak, and thy hobbling pace,
   And thy too-forced pleasantry!

   I know what thou would'st tell
   Of Death, Time, Destiny -
I have known it long, and know, too, well
   What it all means for me.

   But canst thou not array
   Thyself in rare disguise,
And feign like truth, for one mad day,
   That Earth is Paradise?

   I'll tune me to the mood,
   And mumm with thee till eve;
And maybe what as interlude
   I feign, I shall believe!

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

29 sec read
138

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABAB CBCB DXDX EFEF
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 523
Words 95
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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