Poem by Thomas Hardy

The Six Boards

Six boards belong to me:
I do not know where they may be;
If growing green, or lying dry
In a cockloft nigh.

Some morning I shall claim them,
And who may then possess will aim them
To bring to me those boards I need
With thoughtful speed.

But though they hurry so
To yield me mine, I shall not know
How well my want they’ll have supplied
When notified.

Those boards and I – how much
In common we, of feel and touch
Shall share thence on, – earth’s far core-quakings,
Hill-shocks, tide-shakings –

Yea, hid where none will note,
The once live tree and man, remote
From mundane hurt as if on Venus, Mars,
Or furthest stars.

1. V.R. 1819–1901
2. Genitrix Laesa
3. Song from Heine
4. Over the Coffin
5. The Forbidden Banns

Print

1246 Views

Last Poems

To Russian version