SHOW thee as I thought thee <br /> When I early sought thee, <br /> Omen-scouting, <br /> All undoubting <br /> Love alone had wrought thee-- <br /> <br /> Wrought thee for my pleasure, <br /> Planned thee as a measure <br /> For expounding <br /> And resounding <br /> Glad things that men treasure. <br /> <br /> O for but a moment <br /> Of that old endowment-- <br /> Light to gaily <br /> See thy daily <br /> Irisèd embowment! <br /> <br /> But such readorning <br /> Time forbids with scorning-- <br /> Makes me see things <br /> Cease to be things <br /> They were in my morning. <br /> <br /> Fad'st thou, glow-forsaken, <br /> Darkness-overtaken! <br /> Thy first sweetness, <br /> Radiance, meetness, <br /> None shall reawaken. <br /> <br /> Why not sempiternal <br /> Thou and I? Our vernal <br /> Brightness keeping, <br /> Time outleaping; <br /> Passed the hodiernal!<br /><br />Thomas Hardy<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/to-outer-nature/
