Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


THIS SUMMER AND LAST by THOMAS HARDY

Poet Analysis

First Line: UNHAPPY SUMMER YOU / WHO DO NOT SEE
Last Line: KNOW WHAT IT KNEW!
Subject(s): SUMMER;

UNHAPPY summer you,
Who do not see
What your yester-summer saw!
Never, never will you be
Its match to me,
Never, never draw
Smiles your forerunner drew,
Know what it knew!

Divine things done and said
Illumined it,
Whose rays crept into corn-brown curls,
Whose breezes heard a humorous wit
Of fancy flit. -
Still the alert brook purls,
Though feet that there would tread
Elsewhere have sped.

So, bran-new summer, you
Will never see
All that yester-summer saw!
Never, never will you be
In memory
Its rival, never draw
Smiles your forerunner drew,
Know what it knew!




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