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Thomas Hardy

Thomas Hardy was born on June 2, 1840, at Upper Bockhampton in Dorset. After several years as an apprentice in architecture, he began writing fiction and, over a thirty-year period, produced fourteen novels and a

After a Romantic Day

by Thomas Hardy (1840–1928)

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The railway bore him through

An earthen cutting out from a city:

There was no scope for view,

Though the frail light shed by a slim young moon

Fell like a friendly tune.

   Fell like a liquid ditty,
 And the blank lack of any charm
   Of landscape did no harm.
 The bald steep cutting, rigid, rough,

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Poets Book of Days

June 2

Thomas Hardy born, 1840

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Poetry Trivia

Question:

Who described William Blake's poem "Jerusalem," now England's unofficial national anthem, as a "perfectly mad poem"?

Answer

Robert Southey. Southey was poet laureate towards the end of Blake's life.

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