Neutral Tones

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



WE stood by a pond that winter day,
     And the sun was white, as though chidden of God,
     And a few leaves lay on the starving sod,
        --They had fallen from an ash, and were gray.

     Your eyes on me were as eyes that rove
     Over tedious riddles solved years ago;
     And some words played between us to and fro--
        On which lost the more by our love.

     The smile on your mouth was the deadest thing
     Alive enough to have strength to die;
     And a grin of bitterness swept thereby
        Like an ominous bird a-wing....

     Since then, keen lessons that love deceives,
     And wrings with wrong, have shaped to me
     Your face, and the God-curst sun, and a tree,
        And a pond edged with grayish leaves.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on May 02, 2023

38 sec read
170

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABBA XCCX DEED FGGF
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 737
Words 129
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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