Nature

To a Well-named Dwelling

by Thomas Hardy 1840–1928

From Late Lyrics and Earlier, With Many Other Verses

Nature

GLAD old house of lichened stonework,
What I owed you in my lone work,
Noon and night!
Whensoever faint or ailing,
Letting go my grasp and failing,
You lent light.

How by that fair title came you?
Did some forward eye so name you
Knowing that one,
Sauntering down his century blindly,
Would remark your sound, so kindly,
And be won?

Smile in sunlight, sleep in moonlight,
Bask in April, May, and June-light,
Zephyr-fanned;
Let your chambers show no sorrow,
Blanching day, or stuporing morrow,
While they stand.

MLA

Hardy, Thomas. “To a Well-named Dwelling.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/hardy/495/.

Chicago

Hardy, Thomas. “To a Well-named Dwelling.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/hardy/495/.

Read this poem with the Codex →

More by Thomas Hardy