To Outer Nature

Thomas Hardy

     SHOW thee as I thought thee
     When I early sought thee,
       Omen-scouting,
       All undoubting
     Love alone had wrought thee--

     Wrought thee for my pleasure,
     Planned thee as a measure
       For expounding
       And resounding
     Glad things that men treasure.

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

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

     Fad'st thou, glow-forsaken,
     Darkness-overtaken!
       Thy first sweetness,
       Radiance, meetness,
     None shall reawaken.

     Why not sempiternal
     Thou and I? Our vernal
       Brightness keeping,
       Time outleaping;
     Passed the hodiernal!

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