[Hardy-l] Birthday Poem for Thomas Hardy

[Dr Tony Fincham]

Dear Betty,

Many thanks for the poem.

I have just trudged by Froomside path in mist and rain to stand by Cecil Day-Lewis'
grave & read the Birthday Poem twice over to the remains of the collective Hardy Tombstones -
thinking not only of Thomas but also of Emma & Florence, encased there with him. 

Apart from some dimunitive distant birdsong & the rumble of traffic,
the rest was silence.

Kind regards,

Tony Fincham.

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Betty Cortus 
  To: HARDY-L ; POTM 
  Sent: Monday, June 02, 2008 8:54 AM
  Subject: [Hardy-l] Birthday Poem for Thomas Hardy


  Today is Thomas Hardy's 168th birthday.  Let's take a few moments to share this moving tribute to him from a fellow poet.


  With Good Wishes,
  Betty





      Birthday Poem for Thomas Hardy


  Is it birthday weather for you, dear soul?
  Is it fine your way,
  With tall moon-daisies alight, and the mole
  Busy, and elegant hares at play
  By meadow paths where once you would stroll
  In the flush of day?


  I fancy the beasts and flowers there beguiled
  By a visitation
  That casts no shadow, a friend whose mild
  Inquisitive glance lights with compassion,
  Beyond the tomb, on all of this wild
  And humbled creation.


  It's hard to believe a spirit could die
  Of such generous glow,
  Or to doubt that somewhere a bird-sharp eye
  Still broods on the capers of men below,
  A stern voice asks the Immortals why
  They should plague us so.


  Dear poet, wherever you are, I greet you.
  Much irony, wrong,
  Innocence you'd find here to tease or entreat you,
  And many the fate-fires have tempered strong,
  But none that in ripeness of soul could meet you
  Or magic of song.


  Great brow, frail form—gone.  Yet you abide
  In the shadow and sheen,
  All the mellowing traits of a countryside
  That nursed your tragi-comical scene;
  And in us, warmer-hearted and brisker-eyed
  Since you have been.
                                       Cecil Day-Lewis


  This poem was published in Victorian Poetry, 17: 1-2 (1979) 65.










------------------------------------------------------------------------------


  _______________________________________________
  Hardy-l mailing list
  Hardy-l at coyote.csusm.edu
  http://coyote.csusm.edu/mailman/listinfo/hardy-l
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://coyote.csusm.edu/pipermail/hardy-l/attachments/20080602/8cf76f82/attachment.html