Classic and Contemporary Poetry
ON THE ESPLANADE; MIDSUMMER: 10 P.M., by THOMAS HARDY Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: The broad bald moon edged up where the sea was wide Last Line: My fate's masked face crept near me I did not know! | ||||||||
THE broad bald moon edged up where the sea was wide, Mild, mellow-faced; Beneath, a tumbling twinkle of shines, like dyed, A trackway traced To the shore, as of petals fallen from a rose to waste, In its overblow, And fluttering afloat on inward heaves of the tide: -- All this, so plain; yet the rest I did not know. The horizon gets lost in a mist new-wrought by the night: The lamps of the Bay That reach from behind me round to the left and right On the sea-wall way For a constant mile of curve, make a long display As a pearl-strung row, Under which in the waves they bore their gimlets of light: -- All this was plain; but there was a thing not so. Inside a window, open, with undrawn blind, There plays and sings A lady unseen a melody undefined: And where the moon flings Its shimmer a vessel crosses, whereon to the strings Plucked sweetly and low Of a harp, they dance. Yea, such did I mark. That, behind, My Fate's masked face crept near me I did not know! | 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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