Winter Words Quotes

“Proud Songsters

The thrushes sing as the sun is going,
And the finches whistle in ones and pairs,
And as it gets dark loud nightingales
In bushes
Pipe, as they can when April wears,
As if all Time were theirs.

These are brand-new birds of twelve-months’ growing,
Which a year ago, or less than twain,
No finches were, nor nightingales,
Nor thrushes,
But only particles of grain,
And earth, and air, and rain.”
― Thomas Hardy, Winter Words in Various Moods and Metres

“He Never Expected Much

Well, World, you have kept faith with me,
Kept faith with me;
Upon the whole you have proved to be
Much as you said you were.
Since as a child I used to lie
Upon the leaze and watch the sky,
Never, I own, expected I
That life would all be fair.

’Twas then you said, and since have said,
Times since have said,
In that mysterious voice you shed
From clouds and hills around:
‘Many have loved me desperately,
Many with smooth serenity,
While some have shown contempt of me
Till they dropped underground.

‘I do not promise overmuch,
Child; overmuch;
Just neutral-tinted haps and such,’
You said to minds like mine.
Wise warning for your credit’s sake!
Which I for one failed not to take,
And hence could stem such strain and ache
As each year might assign.”
― Thomas Hardy, Winter Words in Various Moods and Metres