The Poetry of Thomas Hardy - 1 - Penguin Audiobooks

 

We stood by a pond that winter day,

And the sun was white, as though chidden of God,

And a few leaves lay on the starving sod,

  —They had fallen from an ash, and were gray.

 

Your eyes on me were as eyes that rove
 
Over tedious riddles solved years ago;

And some words played between us to and fro—

  On which lost the more by our love.

 

The smile on your mouth was the deadest thing

Alive enough to have strength to die;

And a grin of bitterness swept thereby

  Like an ominous bird a-wing….

 

Since then, keen lessons that love deceives,

And wrings with wrong, have shaped to me

Your face, and the God-curst sun, and a tree,
  
  And a pond edged with grayish leaves.



...flat and toneless, calm and bitterly felt, its essence sharp and hard bleakness. A masterfully controlled intensity. The only sign of vitality on the face of the woman is a sardonic grin of bitterness.

The Penguin Audiobook of the Selected Poems of Thomas Hardy, excellently read by, amongst others, Jeremy Northam and Derek Jacobi, and interspersed with a literate and interesting biographical commentary. A tape rip.

(Kindly seed, and if you can't find a seed for any previous poetry torrent go to the folder 'Current Poetry Torrents' and follow the instructions on the pdf.)