An August Midnight

Thomas Hardy

 
I
A shaded lamp and a waving blind,
And the beat of a clock from a distant floor:
On this scene enter—winged, horned, and spined—
A longlegs, a moth, and a dumbledore;
While 'mid my page there idly stands
A sleepy fly, that rubs its hands...
II
Thus meet we five, in this still place,
At this point of time, at this point in space.
—My guests besmear my new-penned line,
Or bang at the lamp and fall supine.
"God's humblest, they!" I muse. Yet why?
They know Earth-secrets that know not I.
 

Poems by This Author

Afterwards by Thomas Hardy
When the Present has latched its postern behind my
At the Entering of the New Year by Thomas Hardy
Our songs went up and out the chimney
At the Piano by Thomas Hardy
A Woman was playing
Channel Firing by Thomas Hardy
That night your great guns, unawares,
During Wind and Rain by Thomas Hardy
They sing their dearest songs
Hap by Thomas Hardy
If but some vengeful god would call to me
How Great My Grief by Thomas Hardy
How great my grief, my joys how few
I Found Her Out There by Thomas Hardy
I found her out there
In the Garden by Thomas Hardy
We waited for the sun
The Convergence of the Twain by Thomas Hardy
In a solitude of the sea
The Darkling Thrush by Thomas Hardy
I leant upon a coppice gate
The Glimpse by Thomas Hardy
She sped through the door
The Going by Thomas Hardy
Why did you give no hint that night
The Interloper by Thomas Hardy
There are three folk driving in a quaint old chaise
The Man He Killed by Thomas Hardy
"Had he and I but met
The Oxen by Thomas Hardy
Christmas Eve, and twelve of the clock
The Ruined Maid by Thomas Hardy
"O 'Melia, my dear, this does everything crown!
The Subalterns by Thomas Hardy
The Voice by Thomas Hardy
Woman much missed, how you call to me, call to me,
The Year's Awakening by Thomas Hardy
How do you know that the pilgrim track
To A Sea-Cliff by Thomas Hardy


Further Reading

Related Poems
A Moth in the Projectorlight [excerpt]
by Joshua Marie Wilkinson
A noiseless patient spider
by Walt Whitman