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Hardy, Thomas, 1840-1928

"Moments of Vision and Miscellaneous Verses"



THE SOMETHING THAT SAVED HIM

It was when
Whirls of thick waters laved me
Again and again,
That something arose and saved me;
Yea, it was then.
In that day
Unseeing the azure went I
On my way,
And to white winter bent I,
Knowing no May.
Reft of renown,
Under the night clouds beating
Up and down,
In my needfulness greeting
Cit and clown.
Long there had been
Much of a murky colour
In the scene,
Dull prospects meeting duller;
Nought between.
Last, there loomed
A closing-in blind alley,
Though there boomed
A feeble summons to rally
Where it gloomed.
The clock rang;
The hour brought a hand to deliver;
I upsprang,
And looked back at den, ditch and river,
And sang.

THE ENEMY'S PORTRAIT

He saw the portrait of his enemy, offered
At auction in a street he journeyed nigh,
That enemy, now late dead, who in his life-time
Had injured deeply him the passer-by.
"To get that picture, pleased be God, I'll try,
And utterly destroy it; and no more
Shall be inflicted on man's mortal eye
A countenance so sinister and sore!"
And so he bought the painting.


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