Quote of the Day (Thomas Hardy, on Being ‘Under the Summer Tree’)

 “They are blithely breakfasting all—
       Men and maidens—yea,
       Under the summer tree,
            With a glimpse of the bay,
       While pet fowl come to the knee. . . .
            Ah, no; the years O!
And the rotten rose is ript from the wall.
 
“They change to a high new house,
       He, she, all of them—aye,
       Clocks and carpets and chairs
          On the lawn all day,
       And brightest things that are theirs. . . .
          Ah, no; the years, the years;
Down their carved names the rain-drop ploughs.”—English poet-novelist Thomas Hardy (1840–1928), “During Wind and Rain,” in Moments of Vision and Miscellaneous Verses (1917)

Quote of the Day (Thomas Hardy, on Where the Oxen Knelt at Christmas)

 

“If someone said on Christmas Eve,
‘Come; see the oxen kneel,
 
‘In the lonely barton by yonder coomb
Our childhood used to know,’
I should go with him in the gloom,
Hoping it might be so.”—English poet-novelist Thomas Hardy (1840-1928), “The Oxen,” originally published in The Times of London (Christmas Eve, 1915)

Quote of the Day (Thomas Hardy, on a Woman’s Communication of Feelings)

“It is difficult for a woman to define her feelings in language which is chiefly made by men to express theirs.” — English poet-novelist Thomas Hardy (1840-1928), Far From the Madding Crowd (1874)

One hundred and fifty years ago this month, Thomas Hardy’s Far From the Madding Crowd was published. It was a notable success that enabled him to marry Emma Gifford, and to give up architecture so he could concentrate on writing.

The novel also marked a turning point in his subject matter and setting, as he first used the name “Wessex” to represent an imaginary region of south and southwest England.

The heroine of the novel, Bathsheba Everdene, was played by Julie Christie (pictured here) in the 1967 film adaptation by John Schlesinger.

Quote of the Day (Thomas Hardy, on ‘A Well-Proportioned Mind’)

“A well-proportioned mind is one which shows no particular bias; one of which we may safely say that it will never cause its owner to be confined as a madman, tortured as a heretic, or crucified as a blasphemer. Also, on the other hand, that it will never cause him to be applauded as a prophet, revered as a priest, or exalted as a king. Its usual blessings are happiness and mediocrity.”—English novelist-poet Thomas Hardy (1840-1928), The Return of the Native (1878)

Quote of the Day (Thomas Hardy, on the Enduring ‘Family Face’)

“I am the family face;

Flesh perishes, I live on,

Projecting trait and trace

Through time to times anon,

And leaping from place to place

Over oblivion.”—English novelist-poet Thomas Hardy (1840-1928), “Heredity,” in Moments of Vision and Miscellaneous Verses (1917)

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.”

Quote of the Day (Thomas Hardy, on a Snowy Cemetery)

“The tripletime beat

Bounds forth on the snow,

But the spry springing feet

Of a century ago,

And the arms that enlaced

As the couples embraced,

Are silent old bones

Under graying gravestones.”—English poet-novelist Thomas Hardy (1840-1928), from “Music in a Snowy Street,” in Hardy: Poems (Everyman’s Library, Pocket Poets Series, 1985)

Quote of the Day (Thomas Hardy, on a ‘Well-Proportioned Mind’)

“A well-proportioned mind is one which shows no particular bias; one of which we may safely say that it will never cause its owner to be confined as a madman, tortured as a heretic, or crucified as a blasphemer. Also, on the other hand, that it will never cause him to be applauded as a prophet, revered as a priest, or exalted as a king. Its usual blessings are happiness and mediocrity.” —British novelist Thomas Hardy (1840-1928), The Return of the Native (1878)

Quote of the Day (Thomas Hardy, As Summer Draws to a Close)

“They are blithely breakfasting all—

      Men and maidens—yea,

       Under the summer tree,

            With a glimpse of the bay,

       While pet fowl come to the knee . . .

           Ah, no; the years O!

 And the rotten rose is ript from the wall.”— Thomas Hardy (1840 - 1928), “During Wind and Rain”