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Thomas Hardy

Shut Out that Moon

Thomas Hardy
Shut Out that Moon
 
Close up the casement, draw the blind,
  Shut out that stealing moon,
She wears too much the guise she worse
  Before our lutes were strewn
With years-deep dust, and names we read
  On a white stone were hewn.
 
Step not forth on the dew-dashed lawn
  To view the Lady's Chair,
Immense Orion's glittering form,
  The Less and Greater Bear:
Stay in; to such sights we were drawn
  When faded ones were fair.
 
Brush not the bough for midnight scent
  That come forth lingeringly,
And wake the same sweet sentiments
  They breathed to you and me
When living seemed a laugh, a love
  All it was said to be.
 
Within the common lamp-lit room
  Prison my eyes and thought;
Let dingy details crudely loom,
  Mechanic speech he wrought:
Too fragrant was Life's early bloom,
  Too tart the fruit it brought!