The Darkling Thrush (Hardy)

from Poetry and Music 3 by Toby Darling

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lyrics

The Darkling Thrush
By Thomas Hardy

Gm Bb
I leant upon a coppice gate
Gm - Dm Gm
When Frost was spectre-grey,
Gm Dm
And Winter's dregs made desolate
Bb-C D
The weakening eye of day.
Gm - Dm - Bb - Dm
The tangled bine-stems scored the sky
Am D
Like strings of broken lyres,
Cm Gm
And all mankind that haunted nigh
Eb Dm Gm
Had sought their household fires.

The land's sharp features seemed to be
The Century's corpse outleant,
His crypt the cloudy canopy,
The wind his death-lament.
The ancient pulse of germ and birth
Was shrunken hard and dry,
And every spirit upon earth
Seemed fervourless as I.

At once a voice arose among
The bleak twigs overhead
In a full-hearted evensong
Of joy illimited;
An aged thrush, frail, gaunt, and small,
In blast-beruffled plume,
Had chosen thus to fling his soul
Upon the growing gloom.

So little cause for carolings
Of such ecstatic sound
Was written on terrestrial things
Afar or nigh around,
That I could think there trembled through
His happy good-night air
Some blessed Hope, whereof he knew
And I was unaware.

credits

from Poetry and Music 3, released April 27, 2016

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Toby Darling Penang, Malaysia

Amateur enthusiast.
Feel free to do anything you want with these tracks, I am not interested in making money from music.

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