Time & Brevity

The Frozen Greenhouse

by Thomas Hardy 1840–1928

From Human Shows, Far Phantasies, Songs and Trifles (1925)

Time & Brevity

“There was a frost
Last night!” she said,
“And the stove was forgot
When we went to bed,
And the greenhouse plants
Are frozen dead!”

By the breakfast blaze
Blank-faced spoke she,
Her scared young look
Seeming to be
The very symbol
Of tragedy.

The frost is fiercer
Than then to-day,
As I pass the place
Of her once dismay,
But the greenhouse stands
Warm, tight, and gay,

While she who grieved
At the sad lot
Of her pretty plants —
Cold, iced, forgot —
Herself is colder,
And knows it not.

✦ ✦ ✦

(St. Juliot)

MLA

Hardy, Thomas. “The Frozen Greenhouse.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/hardy/562/.

Chicago

Hardy, Thomas. “The Frozen Greenhouse.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/hardy/562/.

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