Quote of the Day (Thomas Hardy, Anticipating Winter)

“At once a voice arose among

      The bleak twigs overhead

In a full-hearted evensong

      Of joy illimited;

An aged thrush, frail, gaunt, and small,

      In blast-beruffled plume,

Had chosen thus to fling his soul

      Upon the growing gloom.”—English poet-novelist Thomas Hardy (1840-1928), “The Darkling Thrush,” in Poems of the Past and the Present (1901).

Hardy’s poem was published in December 1900. Until a week ago, it seemed like the Northeast of the United States, where I live, was emmeshed in an endless summer. Now, all of a sudden, it seems far easier to see the end of the year and the “growing gloom.”