Thursday, October 18, 2018

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.”

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