Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


TO A WELL-NAMED DWELLING by THOMAS HARDY

Poet Analysis

First Line: GLAD OLD HOUSE OF LICHENED STONEWORK
Last Line: WHILE THEY STAND.

GLAD old house of lichened stonework,
What I owed you in my lone work,
Noon and night!
Whensoever faint or ailing,
Letting go my grasp and failing,
You lent light.

How by that fair title came you?
Did some forward eye so name you
Knowing that one,
Stumbling down his century blindly,
Would remark your sound, so kindly,
And be won?

Smile in sunlight, sleep in moonlight,
Bask in April, May, and June-light,
Zephyr-fanned;
Let your chambers show no sorrow,
Blanching day, or stuporing morrow,
While they stand.



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