Time & Brevity

“We are getting to the End”

by Thomas Hardy 1840–1928

From Winter Words in Various Moods and Metres (1928)

Time & Brevity

Wi? are getting to the end of visioning
The impossible within this universe,
Such as that better whiles may follow worse,
And that our race may mend by reasoning.

We know that even as larks in cages sing
Unthoughtful of deliverance from the curse
That holds them lifelong in a latticed hearse,
We ply spasmodically our pleasuring.

And that when nations set them to lay waste
Their neighbours’ heritage by foot and horse,
And hack their pleasant plains in festering seams,
They may again, — not warely, or from taste,
But tickled mad by some demonic force. —
Yes. We are getting to the end of dreams!

MLA

Hardy, Thomas. ““We are getting to the End”.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/hardy/771/.

Chicago

Hardy, Thomas. ““We are getting to the End”.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/hardy/771/.

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