![]() |
Classic and Contemporary Poetry
COMING UP OXFORD STREET: EVENING, by THOMAS HARDY Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: The sun from the west glares back Last Line: Empty of interest in things, and wondering why he was born. Subject(s): Evening; Sunset; Twilight | |||
THE sun from the west glares back, And the sun from the watered track, And the sun from the sheets of glass, And the sun from each window-brass; Sun-mirrorings, too, brighten From show-cases beneath The laughing eyes and teeth Of ladies who rouge and whiten. And the same warm god explores Panels and chinks of doors; Problems with chymists' bottles Profound as Aristotle's He solves, and with good cause, Having been ere man was. Also he dazzles the pupils of one who walks west, A city-clerk, with eyesight not of the best, Who sees no escape to the very verge of his days From the rut of Oxford Street into open ways; And he goes along with head and eyes flagging forlorn, Empty of interest in things, and wondering why he was born. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...JOURNEY INTO THE EYE by DAVID LEHMAN FEBRUARY EVENING IN NEW YORK by DENISE LEVERTOV THE HOUSE OF DUST: 1 by CONRAD AIKEN TWILIGHT COMES by HAYDEN CARRUTH IN THE EVENINGS by LUCILLE CLIFTON NINETEEN FORTY by NORMAN DUBIE AND THERE WAS A GREAT CALM' by THOMAS HARDY |
|