Time & Brevity

The Six Boards

by Thomas Hardy 1840–1928

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

Time & Brevity

Six boards belong to me:
I do not know where they may be;
If growing green, or lying dry
In a cockloft nigh.

Some morning I shall claim them,
And who may then possess will aim them
To bring to me those boards I need
With thoughtful speed.

But though they hurry so
To yield me mine, I shall not know
How well my want they’ll have supplied
When notified.

Those boards and I — how much
In common we, of feel and touch
Shall share thence on, — earth’s far core-quakings.
Hill-shocks, tide-shakings —

Yea, hid where none will note,
The once live tree and man, remote
From mundane hurt as if on Venus, Mars,
Or furthest stars.

MLA

Hardy, Thomas. “The Six Boards.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/hardy/658/.

Chicago

Hardy, Thomas. “The Six Boards.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/hardy/658/.

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