(2 June 1840 – 11 January 1928 / Dorchester / England)

poet Thomas Hardy
#51 on top 500 poets

Quotations

  • ''Twilight combined with the scenery of Egdon Heath to evolve a thing majestic without severity, impressive without showiness, emphatic in its admonitions, grand in its simplicity. The qualifications which frequently invest the facade of a prison with far more dignity than is found in the facade of a palace double its size lent to this health a sublimity in which spots renowned for beauty of the accepted kind are utterly wanting. Fair prospects wed happily with fair times; but alas, if times be not fair!''
    Thomas Hardy (1840-1928), British novelist, poet. The Return of the Native, book first, ch. I (1878).
    61 person liked.
    		32 person did not like.
  • ''He had been a lad of whom something was expected. Beyond this all had been chaos. That he would be successful in an original way, or that he would go to the dogs in an original way, seemed equally probable. The only absolute certainty about him was that he would not stand still in the circumstances amid which he was born.''
    Thomas Hardy (1840-1928), British novelist, poet. The Return of the Native, book third, ch. I (1878).
    54 person liked.
    		26 person did not like.
  • ''The place became full of a watchful intentness now; for when other things sank brooding to sleep the heath appeared slowly to awake and listen. Every night its Titanic form seemed to await something; but it had waited thus, unmoved, during so many centuries, through the crises of so many things, that it could only be imagined to await one last crisis—the final overthrow.''
    Thomas Hardy (1840-1928), British novelist, poet. The Return of the Native, book first, ch. 34 (1878).
    30 person liked.
    		21 person did not like.
  • ''The Roman Road runs straight and bare
    As the pale parting-line in hair
    Across the heath.''
    Thomas Hardy (1840-1928), British novelist, poet. The Roman Road (l. 1-3). . . The Complete Poems of Thomas Hardy. James Gibson, ed. (1978) Macmillan.
    27 person liked.
    		27 person did not like.
  • ''Uprises there
    A mother's form upon my ken,
    Guiding my infant steps, as when
    We walked that ancient, thoroughfare,
    The Roman Road.''
    Thomas Hardy (1840-1928), British novelist, poet. The Roman Road (l. 11-15). . . The Complete Poems of Thomas Hardy. James Gibson, ed. (1978) Macmillan.
    8 person liked.
    		3 person did not like.
  • ''—'I wish I had feathers, a fine sweeping gown,
    And a delicate face, and could strut about Town!'—
    'My dear—a raw country girl, such as you be,
    Cannot quite expect that. You ain't ruined,' said she.''
    Thomas Hardy (1840-1928), British novelist, poet. The Ruined Maid (l. 21-24). . . The Complete Poems of Thomas Hardy. James Gibson, ed. (1978) Macmillan.
    4 person liked.
    		5 person did not like.
  • ''whence such fair garments, such prosperi-ty?'—
    'O didn't you know I'd been ruined?' said she.''
    Thomas Hardy (1840-1928), British novelist, poet. The Ruined Maid (l. 3-4). . . The Complete Poems of Thomas Hardy. James Gibson, ed. (1978) Macmillan.
    4 person liked.
    		3 person did not like.
  • ''Here is the ancient floor,
    Footworn and hollowed and thin
    Here was the former door
    Where the dead feet walked in.''
    Thomas Hardy (1840-1928), British novelist, poet. The Self-Unseeing (l. 1-4). . . The Complete Poems of Thomas Hardy. James Gibson, ed. (1978) Macmillan.
    3 person liked.
    		2 person did not like.
  • ''"Come hither, Son," I heard Death say;
    "I did not will a grave
    Should end thy pilgrimage today,
    But I, too, am a slave!"''
    Thomas Hardy (1840-1928), British novelist, poet. The Subalterns (l. 13-16). . . The Complete Poems of Thomas Hardy. James Gibson, ed. (1978) Macmillan.
    3 person liked.
    		2 person did not like.
  • ''bring me here again!
    I am just the same as when
    Our days were a joy, and our paths through flowers.''
    Thomas Hardy (1840-1928), British novelist, poet. After a Journey (l. 30-32). . . The Complete Poems of Thomas Hardy. James Gibson, ed. (1978) Macmillan.
    4 person liked.
    		2 person did not like.

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She, to Him, IV

This love puts all humanity from me;
I can but maledict her, pray her dead,
For giving love and getting love of thee—
Feeding a heart that else mine own had fed!

How much I love I know not, life not known,
Save as some unit I would add love by;
But this I know, my being is but thine own—
Fused from its separateness by ecstasy.

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