A Meeting With Despair Poem by Thomas Hardy
A Meeting With Despair
AS evening shaped I found me on a moor
Which sight could scarce sustain:
The black lean land, of featureless contour,
Was like a tract in pain.
"This scene, like my own life," I said, "is one
Where many glooms abide;
Toned by its fortune to a deadly dun--
Lightless on every side.
I glanced aloft and halted, pleasure-caught
To see the contrast there:
The ray-lit clouds gleamed glory; and I thought,
"There's solace everywhere!"
Then bitter self-reproaches as I stood
I dealt me silently
As one perverse--misrepresenting Good
In graceless mutiny.
Against the horizon's dim-descernèd wheel
A form rose, strange of mould:
That he was hideous, hopeless, I could feel
Rather than could behold.
"'Tis a dead spot, where even the light lies spent
To darkness!" croaked the Thing.
"Not if you look aloft!" said I, intent
On my new reasoning.
"Yea--but await awhile!" he cried. "Ho-ho!--
Look now aloft and see!"
I looked. There, too, sat night: Heaven's radiant show
Had gone. Then chuckled he.
Pretty gloomy, not Hardy's greatest effort, has produced much fragrant pieces.
Chillingly eerie and atmospheric. Great description of despair and hopelessness. Yet is there redemption and hope? This the poet leaves us to decide.
A beautiful poem and despair seems to be the theme.
Wow! As I kept moving through lines, kept loving it more and more. Hope and despair- two twin sisters, like light and darkness, ever moving ever existing.
The raw emotions of despair are conveyed through direct and unsentimental language, capturing the nihilistic mood of the late Victorian era.
This poem explores themes of hopelessness, suffering, and existential uncertainty. The poem compares the barren landscape to a desolate life, reflecting the author's pessimistic view of existence.
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
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7/17/2025 5:00:31 PM # 1.0.0
A classic poet