Love

The Dream Is—which?

by Thomas Hardy 1840–1928

From Late Lyrics and Earlier, With Many Other Verses

Love

I AM laughing by the brook with her,
Splashed in its tumbling stir;
And then it is a blankness looms
As if I walked not there,
Nor she, but found me in haggard rooms,
And treading a lonely stair.

With radiant cheeks and rapid eyes
We sit where none espies;
Till a harsh change comes edging in
As no such scene were there,
But winter, and I were bent and thin,
And cinder-gray my hair.

We dance in heys around the hall,
Weightless as thistleball;
And then a curtain drops between,
As if I danced not there,
But wandered through a mounded green
To find her, I knew where.

March 1913.

MLA

Hardy, Thomas. “The Dream Is—which?” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/hardy/481/.

Chicago

Hardy, Thomas. “The Dream Is—which?” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/hardy/481/.

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