WINTER IN
DURNOVER
FIELD
SCENE.
SCENE.
Thomas Hardy - Poems of the Past and Present
MAX GATE, 1899.
THE CAGED THRUSH FREED AND HOME AGAIN
(VILLANELLE)
"MEN know but little more than we,
Who count us least of things terrene,
How happy days are made to be!
"Of such strange tidings what think ye,
O birds in brown that peck and preen?
Men know but little more than we!
"When I was borne from yonder tree
In bonds to them, I hoped to glean
How happy days are made to be,
"And want and wailing turned to glee;
Alas, despite their mighty mien
Men know but little more than we!
"They cannot change the Frost's decree,
They cannot keep the skies serene;
How happy days are made to be
"Eludes great Man's sagacity
No less than ours, O tribes in treen!
Men know but little more than we
How happy days are made to be. "
BIRDS AT WINTER NIGHTFALL
(TRIOLET)
AROUND the house the flakes fly faster,
And all the berries now are gone
From holly and cotoneaster
Around the house. The flakes fly! --faster
Shutting indoors that crumb-outcaster
We used to see upon the lawn
Around the house. The flakes fly faster,
And all the berries now are gone!
MAX GATE.
THE PUZZLED GAME-BIRDS
(TRIOLET)
THEY are not those who used to feed us
When we were young--they cannot be--
These shapes that now bereave and bleed us?
They are not those who used to feed us,--
For would they not fair terms concede us?
--If hearts can house such treachery
They are not those who used to feed us
When we were young--they cannot be!
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.
(TRIOLET)
_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!
