Literature Network » Thomas Hardy » Moments of Vision » The Figure in the Scene

The Figure in the Scene

   It pleased her to step in front and sit
      Where the cragged slope was green,
While I stood back that I might pencil it
      With her amid the scene;
         Till it gloomed and rained;
But I kept on, despite the drifting wet
         That fell and stained
My draught, leaving for curious quizzings yet
         The blots engrained.
   And thus I drew her there alone,
      Seated amid the gauze
Of moisture, hooded, only her outline shown,
      With rainfall marked across.
        --Soon passed our stay;
Yet her rainy form is the Genius still of the spot,
         Immutable, yea,
Though the place now knows her no more, and has known her not
         Ever since that day.

Literature Network » Thomas Hardy » Moments of Vision » The Figure in the Scene