Thomas Hardy

A Forgotten Miniature

There you are in the dark,
Deep in a box
Nobody ever unlocks,
Or even turns to mark;
– Out of mind stark.

Yet there you have not been worsed
Like your sitter
By Time, the Fair’s hard-hitter;
Your beauties, undispersed,
Glow as at first.

Shut in your case for years,
Never an eye
Of the many passing nigh,
Fixed on their own affairs,
Thinks what it nears!

– While you have lain in gloom,
A form forgot,
Your reign remembered not,
Much life has come to bloom
Within this room.

Yea, in Time’s cyclic sweep
Unrest has ranged:
Women and men have changed:
Some you knew slumber deep;
Some wait for sleep.