In The Small Hours
I lay in my bed and fiddled With a dreamland viol and bow, And the tunes flew back to my fingers I had melodied years ago. It was two or three in the morning When I fancy-fiddled so Long reels and country-dances, And hornpipes swift and slow. And soon anon came crossing The chamber in the gray Figures of jigging fieldfolk - Saviours of corn and hay - To the air of "Haste to the Wedding," As after a wedding-day; Yea, up and down the middle In windless whirls went they! There danced the bride and bridegroom, And couples in a train, Gay partners time and travail Had longwhiles stilled amain! . . . It seemed a thing for weeping To find, at slumber's wane And morning's sly increeping, That Now, not Then, held reign.
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"I lay in my bed and fiddled..."
Thomas Hardy's contribution to classic is further solidified by the brilliance found in "In The Small Hours"... ### Why We Love This Line At Linespedia, we believe that poetry is the ultimate sanctuary for the soul...