Poem by Thomas Hardy

In the Moonlight

"O lonely workman, standing there
In a dream, why do you stare and stare
At her grave, as no other grave where there?"

"If your great gaunt eyes so importune
Her soul by the shine of this corpse-cold moon,
Maybe you'll raise her phantom soon!"

"Why, fool, it is what I would rather see
Than all the living folk there be;
But alas, there is no such joy for me!"

"Ah - she was one you loved, no doubt,
Through good and evil, through rain and drought,
And when she passed, all your sun went out?"

"Nay: she was the woman I did not love,
Whom all the other were ranked above,
Whom during her life I thought nothing of." 

1. The Chimes Play ‘Life’s a Bumper!’
2. Premonitions
3. Royal Sponsors
4. The Interloper
5. The Opportunity

David Wright In the Moonlight ("The moon is bright, and the winds are laid, and the river is roaring by")

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