DARKLING THRUSH

THE DARKLING THRUSH 
                      by Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) excerpts

 I leant upon a coppice gate when FROST was spectre gray

And Winter's dregs made desolate the weakening eye of day.

Pileated Woodpecker

 The tangled  stems scored the sky like strings of broken lyres
And all mankind that haunted nigh had sought their household fires.

 The land's sharp features seemed to me the Century's corpse outleant

Flicker

 Its crypt the cloudy canopy the wind its death lament.

 The ancient pulse of germ and birth was shrunken hard and dry

 And every spirit upon the earth seemed fervourless as I

 At once a voice arose among the bleak twigs overhead

 In a full hearted evensong of joy illimited.

An aged Thrush, small, with blast-beruffled plume

 Had chosen thus to fling his soul Upon the growing gloom.

stellar jay

 So little cause for carolings

 Of such ecsatic sound

 Was written on terrestrial things afar or nigh around

junco

 that I could think there trembled through

 His happy good-night air

 Some blessed HOPE, whereof he knew......And I was unaware....

 Poem from the 19th century, published Dec 29 1900. Hardy wrote in the style of George Eliot and Wordsworth. I love this poem.  Beautiful imagery.

Photographs 2019