Now I think about it, it is indicative of something about the times we live in that Blogger Profiles do not provide automatic space for a list of favourite poems. Perhaps because singer-songwriters have taken over
This poem by Thomas Hardy is one of my favourites. It conjures up so much about the life of the couple. With its powerful cadence & slightly laboured hesitant rhythm it reminds me of the harmonium in one of the chapels I was taken to as a child. A bit asthmatic & wheezy, but valiantly pedalled by a lady probably almost as old as the one in the poem
A Church Romance
She turned in the high pew, until her sight
Swept the west gallery, and caught its row
Of music-men with viol, book and bow
Against the sinking sad tower-window light.
She turned again; and in her pride's despair
One strenuous viol's inspirer seemed to throw
A message from his string to her below,
Which said: "I claim thee as my own forthright!!
Thus their heart's bond began, in due time signed,
And long years thence, when Age had scared Romance,
At some old attitude of his or glance
That gallery-scene would break upon her mind,
With him as minstrel, ardent, young and trim,
Bowing "New Sabbath" or "Mount Ephraim."
Thomas Hardy
