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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


TO OUTER NATURE by THOMAS HARDY

Poet Analysis

First Line: SHOW THEE AS I THOUGHT THEE
Last Line: PASSED THE HODIERNAL!

SHOW thee as I thought thee
When I early sought thee,
Omen-scouting,
All undoubting
Love alone had wrought thee --

Wrought thee for my pleasure,
Planned thee as a measure
For expounding
And resounding
Glad things that men treasure.

O for but a moment
Of that old endowment --
Light to gaily
See thy daily
Irised embowment!

But such readorning
Time forbids with scorning --
Makes me see things
Cease to be things
They were in my morning.

Fad'st thou, glow-forsaken,
Darkness-overtaken!
Thy first sweetness,
Radiance, meetness,
None shall reawaken.

Why not sempiternal
Thou and I? Our vernal
Brightness keeping,
Time outleaping;
Passed the hodiernal!




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