Classic and Contemporary Poetry
JUBILATE, by THOMAS HARDY Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: The very last time I ever was here,' he said Last Line: And onward he went, and the darkness swallowed him up. | ||||||||
'THE very last time I ever was here,' he said, 'I saw much less of the quick than I saw of the dead.' - He was a man I had met with somewhere before, But how or when I now could recall no more. 'The hazy mazy moonlight at one in the morning Spread out as a sea across the frozen snow, Glazed to live sparkles like the great breastplate adorning The priest of the Temple, with Urim and Thummim aglow. 'The yew-tree arms, glued hard to the stiff stark air, Hung still in the village sky as theatre-scenes When I came by the churchyard wall, and halted there At a shut-in sound of fiddles and tambourines. 'And as I stood hearkening, dulcimers, hautboys, and shawms, And violoncellos, and a three-stringed double-bass, Joined in, and were intermixed with a singing of psalms; And I looked over at the dead men's dwelling-place. 'Through the shine of the slippery snow I now could see, As it were through a crystal roof, a great company Of the dead minueting in stately step underground To the tune of the instruments I had before heard sound. 'It was "Eden New", and dancing they sang in a chore, "We are out of it all! - yea, in Little-Ease cramped no more!" And their shrouded figures pacing with joy I could see As you see the stage from the gallery. And they had no heed of me. 'And I lifted my head quite dazed from the churchyard wall And I doubted not that it warned I should soon have my call. But --' ... Then in the ashes he emptied the dregs of his cup, And onward he went, and the darkness swallowed him up. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...MEN WHO MARCH AWAY' (SONG OF THE SOLDIERS) by THOMAS HARDY A BROKEN APPOINTMENT by THOMAS HARDY A CHRISTMAS GHOST-STORY; CHRISTMAS-EVE 1899 by THOMAS HARDY A THOUGHT IN TWO MOODS by THOMAS HARDY A THUNDERSTORM IN TOWN by THOMAS HARDY A TRAMPWOMAN'S TRAGEDY by THOMAS HARDY A WIFE IN LONDON by THOMAS HARDY ACCORDING TO THE MIGHTY WORKING by THOMAS HARDY |
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