Moments of Vision and Miscellaneous Verses

by Thomas Hardy

Transcribed from the 1919 Macmillan and Co. edition by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org

MOMENTS OF VISION
AND
MISCELLANEOUS VERSES

BY
THOMAS HARDY

MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED
ST. MARTIN’S STREET, LONDON
1929

COPYRIGHT

First Edition 1917
Reprinted 1919
Pocket Edition 1919
Reprinted 1923, 1925, 1929
Wessex Edition 1919

PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN
BY R. & R. CLARK, LIMITED, EDINBURGH

CONTENTS

		PAGE
Moments of Vision		[1]
The Voice of Things		[2]
“Why be at pains?”		[3]
“We sat at the window”		[4]
Afternoon Service at Mellstock		[5]
At the Wicket-gate		[6]
In a Museum		[7]
Apostrophe to an Old Psalm Tune		[8]
At the Word “Farewell”		[11]
First Sight of Her and After		[13]
The Rival		[14]
Heredity		[15]
“You were the sort that menforget”		[16]
She, I, and They		[17]
Near Lanivet, 1872		[18]
Joys of Memory		[20]
To the Moon		[21]
Copying Architecture in an Old Minster		[22]
To Shakespeare		[24]
Quid hic agis?		[27]
On a Midsummer Eve		[30]
Timing Her		[31]
Before Knowledge		[34]
The Blinded Bird		[35]
“The wind blew words”		[36]
The Faded Face		[37]
The Riddle		[38]
The Duel		[39]
At Mayfair Lodgings		[42]
To my Father’s Violin		[44]
The Statue of Liberty		[47]
The Background and the Figure		[50]
The Change		[51]
Sitting on the Bridge		[54]
The Young Churchwarden		[56]
“I travel as a phantom now”		[57]
Lines to a Movement in Mozart’s E-flatSymphony		[58]
“In the seventies”		[60]
The Pedigree		[62]
This Heart. A Woman’s Dream		[65]
Where they lived		[68]
The Occultation		[69]
Life laughs Onward		[70]
The Peace-offering		[71]
“Something tapped”		[72]
The Wound		[73]
A Merrymaking in Question		[74]
“I said and sang herexcellence”		[75]
A January Night. 1879		[77]
A Kiss		[78]
The Announcement		[79]
The Oxen		[80]
The Tresses		[81]
The Photograph		[82]
On a Heath		[84]
An Anniversary		[85]
“By the Runic Stone”		[87]
The Pink Frock		[88]
Transformations		[89]
In her Precincts		[90]
The Last Signal		[91]
The House of Silence		[93]
Great Things		[95]
The Chimes		[97]
The Figure in the Scene		[98]
“Why did I sketch”		[99]
Conjecture		[100]
The Blow		[101]
Love the Monopolist		[103]
At Middle-field Gate in February		[105]
The Youth who carried a Light		[106]
The Head above the Fog		[108]
Overlooking the River Stour		[109]
The Musical Box		[111]
On Sturminster Foot-bridge		[113]
Royal Sponsors		[114]
Old Furniture		[116]
A Thought in Two Moods		[118]
The Last Performance		[119]
“You on the tower”		[120]
The Interloper		[122]
Logs on the Hearth		[124]
The Sunshade		[126]
The Ageing House		[128]
The Caged Goldfinch		[129]
At Madame Tussaud’s in VictorianYears		[130]
The Ballet		[132]
The Five Students		[133]
The Wind’s Prophecy		[135]
During Wind and Rain		[137]
He prefers her Earthly		[139]
The Dolls		[140]
Molly gone		[141]
A Backward Spring		[143]
Looking Across		[144]
At a Seaside Town in 1869		[146]
The Glimpse		[149]
The Pedestrian		[151]
“Who’s in the nextroom?”		[153]
At a Country Fair		[155]
The Memorial Brass: 186-		[156]
Her Love-birds		[158]
Paying Calls		[160]
The Upper Birch-Leaves		[161]
“It never looks like summer”		[162]
Everything comes		[163]
The Man with a Past		[164]
He fears his Good Fortune		[166]
He wonders about Himself		[167]
Jubilate		[168]
He revisits his First School		[171]
“I thought, my heart”		[173]
Fragment		[174]
Midnight on the Great Western		[176]
Honeymoon Time at an Inn		[177]
The Robin		[181]
“I rose and went to Rou’tortown”		[183]
The Nettles		[184]
In a Waiting-room		[185]
The Clock-winder		[187]
Old Excursions		[189]
The Masked Face		[191]
In a Whispering Gallery		[192]
The Something that saved Him		[193]
The Enemy’s Portrait		[195]
Imaginings		[197]
On the Doorstep		[198]
Signs and Tokens		[199]
Paths of Former Time		[201]
The Clock of the Years		[203]
At the Piano		[205]
The Shadow on the Stone		[206]
In the Garden		[208]
The Tree and the Lady		[209]
An Upbraiding		[211]
The Young Glass-stainer		[212]
Looking at a Picture on an Anniversary		[213]
The Choirmaster’s Burial		[215]
The Man who forgot		[217]
While drawing in a Churchyard		[219]
“For Life I had never caredgreatly”		[221]
Poems of War andPatriotism—
	“Men who march away” (Song of theSoldiers)	[225]
	His Country	[227]
	England to Germany in 1914	[229]
	On the Belgian Expatriation	[230]
	AnAppeal to America on behalf of the Belgian Destitute	[231]
	The Pity of It	[232]
	In Time of Wars and Tumults	[233]
	In Time of “the Breaking of nations”	[234]
	Cry of the Homeless	[235]
	Before Marching and After	[237]
	“Often when warring”	[239]
	Then and Now	[240]
	A Call to National Service	[242]
	The Dead and the Living One	[243]
	A New Year’s Eve in War Time	[246]
	“I met a man”	[248]
	“I looked up from my writing”	[250]
Finale—
	The Coming of the End	[255]
	Afterwards	[257]

MOMENTS OF VISION