Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, A CATHEDRAL FACADE AT MIDNIGHT, by THOMAS HARDY


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A CATHEDRAL FACADE AT MIDNIGHT, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Along the sculptures of the western wall
Last Line: The coded creeds of old-time godliness.


ALONG the sculptures of the western wall
I watched the moonlight creeping:
It moved as if it hardly moved at all,
Inch by inch thinly peeping
Round on the pious figures of freestone, brought
And poised there when the Universe was wrought
To serve its centre, Earth, in mankind's thought.

The lunar look skimmed scantly toe, breast, arm,
Then edged on slowly, slightly,
To shoulder, hand, face; till each austere form
Was blanched its whole length brightly
Of prophet, king, queen, cardinal in state,
That dead men's tools had striven to simulate;
And the stiff images stood irradiate.

A frail moan from the martyred saints there set
Mid others of the erection
Against the breeze, seemed sighings of regret
At the ancient faith's rejection
Under the sure, unhasting, steady stress
Of Reason's movement, making meaningless
The coded creeds of old-time godliness.





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