| Thomas Hardy (1840–1928). Wessex Poems and Other Verses. 1898. |
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| 8. Neutral Tones |
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| 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. | |
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| Your eyes on me were as eyes that rove | 5 |
| Over tedious riddles solved years ago; | |
| And some words played between us to and fro— | |
| On which lost the more by our love. | |
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| The smile on your mouth was the deadest thing | |
| Alive enough to have strength to die; | 10 |
| And a grin of bitterness swept thereby | |
| Like an ominous bird a-wing…. | |
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| 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, | 15 |
And a pond edged with grayish leaves.
1867. | |
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