22 In Tenebris (1898)
Thomas Hardy
“In Tenebris” by Thomas Hardy was first published in his 1898 collection Wessex Poems and Other Verses, which is available on Google Books. The poem is in the public domain.
The editorial notes are available under the CC BY-NC 4.0 license. Unless otherwise attributed, they were written by Dr. Kylee-Anne Hingston at the University of Saskatchewan.
In Tenebris
IN TENEBRIS
I.
“Percussus sum sicut foenum, et aruit cor meum.” —Ps. ci.[1]
Wintertime nighs;
But my bereavement-pain
It cannot bring again:
Twice no one dies.
5
Flower-petals flee;
But, since it once hath been,
No more that severing scene
Can harrow me.
Birds faint in dread:
10
I shall not lose old strength
In the lone frost’s black length:
Strength long since fled!
Leaves freeze to dun;
But friends can not turn cold
15
This season as of old
For him with none.
Tempests may scath;
But love can not make smart
Again this year his heart
20
Who no heart hath.
Black is night’s cope;
But death will not appal
One who, past doubtings all,
Waits in unhope.
1895.
Work Cited
Hardy, Thomas. “In Tenebris.” Wessex Poems and Other Verses: Poems of the Past and Present, Harper and Brothers Publishers, 1898, p. 243. Google Books, www.google.ca/books/edition/Wessex_Poems_and_other_verses_and_Poems/AtgdfFxlX-cC.
- This is the Latin Vulgate text of Psalm 102.4, which is translated as “My heart is smitten, and withered like grass” (KJV). The Vulgate has been largely out of use in England, except in the Roman Catholic Church, since the late-sixteenth century. ↵
