Winter in Durnover Field
Scene.--A wide stretch of fallow ground recently sown with wheat, and frozen to iron hardness. Three large birds walking about thereon, and wistfully eyeing the surface. Wind keen from north-east: sky a dull grey.
Rook: Throughout the field I find no grain;
The cruel frost encrusts the cornland!
Starling: Aye: patient pecking now is vain
Throughout the field, I find . . .
Rook: No grain!
Pigeon: Nor will be, comrade, till it rain,
Or genial thawings loose the lorn land
Throughout the field.
Rook: I find no grain:
The cruel frost encrusts the cornland!
~~
Thomas Hardy (1840-1928)
from Poems of the Past and Present, 1901
[Poem is in the public domain in Canada, the United States, and the European Union]
Thomas Hardy biography
No comments:
Post a Comment