Thomas Hardy
To Outer Nature
Show thee as I thought thee
When I early sought thee,
       &nbsp Omen-scouting,
       &nbsp All undoubting
Love alone had wrought thee -
Wrought thee for my pleasure,
Planned thee as a measure
       &nbsp For expounding
       &nbsp And resounding
Glad things that men treasure.

O for but a moment
Of that old endowment -
       &nbsp Light to gaily
       &nbsp See thy daily
Irised embowment!

But such re-adorning
Time forbids with scorning -
       &nbsp Makes me see things
       &nbsp Cease to be things
They were in my morning.

Fad'st thou, glow-forsaken,
Darkness-overtaken!
       &nbsp Thy first sweetness,
       &nbsp Radiance, meetness,
None shall re-awaken.
Why not sempiternal
Thou and I? Our vernal
       &nbsp Brightness keeping,
       &nbsp Time outleaping;
Passed the hodiernal!