Thomas Hardy: Trending quotes (page 6)

"The Convergence of the Twain" (Lines on the loss of the Titanic) http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poem/916.html (1912), lines 1-3, from Satires of Circumstance (1914)

Life , Solitude , Sea

“When I set out for Lyonnesse,
A hundred miles away,
The rime was on the spray,
And starlight lit my lonesomeness.”

Thomas Hardy

" When I Set Out For Lyonnesse http://www.poetryconnection.net/poets/Thomas_Hardy/2736" (1870), lines 1-4, from Satires of Circumstance (1914)

“It was at present a place perfectly accordant with man's nature—neither ghastly, hateful, nor ugly; neither commonplace, unmeaning, nor tame; but, like man, slighted and enduring; and withal singularly colossal and mysterious in its swarthy monotony. As with some persons who have long lived apart, solitude seemed to look out of its countenance. It had a lonely face, suggesting tragical possibilities.”

Thomas Hardy book The Return of the Native

Bk. I, ch. 1
The Return of the Native (1878)

Hate , Nature , Solitude , Personality

“A local cult, called Christianity.”

Thomas Hardy The Dynasts

Pt. I, sc. vi, Spirit of the Years
The Dynasts (1904–1908)

“The sovereign brilliancy of Sirius pierced the eye with a steely glitter, the star called Capella was yellow, Aldebaran and Betelgueux shone with a fiery red. To persons standing alone on a hill during a clear midnight such as this, the roll of the world eastward is almost a palpable movement.”

Thomas Hardy book Far from the Madding Crowd

Source: Far from the Madding Crowd (1874), Ch. 2

World , Star , Personality

“They throw in Drummer Hodge, to rest
Uncoffined — just as found:
His landmark is a kopje-crest
That breaks the veldt around;
And foreign constellations west
Each night above his mound.

Young Hodge the Drummer never knew —
Fresh from his Wessex home —
The meaning of the broad Karoo,
The Bush, the dusty loam,
And why uprose to nightly view
Strange stars amid the gloam.

Yet portion of that unknown plain
Will Hodge forever be;
His homely Northern breast and brain
Grow to some Southern tree,
And strange-eyed constellations reign
His stars eternally.”

Thomas Hardy

" Drummer Hodge http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~www_se/personal/pvm/HardyBWar/pracrit.html" (1899), lines 1-18, from Poems of the Past and Present (1901)

Home , Star , Tree , Night

“The Earth, say'st thou? The Human race?
By Me created? Sad its lot?
Nay: I have no remembrance of such place:
Such world I fashioned not.”

Thomas Hardy

" God-Forgotten http://www.poetryconnection.net/poets/Thomas_Hardy/16398", lines 4-8, from Poems of the Past and Present (1901)

World , Sadness , Fashion

“William Dewy, Tranter Reuben, Farmer Ledlow late at plough,
Robert's kin, and John's, and Ned's,
And the Squire, and Lady Susan, lie in Mellstock churchyard now!”

Thomas Hardy

" Friends Beyond http://www.poetryconnection.net/poets/Thomas_Hardy/16393", lines 1-3, from Wessex Poems (1898)

Lie

“I leant upon a coppice gate
When Frost was spectre-gray,
And Winter’s dregs made desolate
The weakening eye of day
The tangled bine-stems scored the sky
Like strings of broken lyres,
And all mankind that haunted nigh
Had sought their household fires.”

Thomas Hardy

" The Darkling Thrush http://www.poetry-online.org/hardy_the_darkling_thrush.htm" (1900), lines 1-8, from Poems of the Past and Present (1901)