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1840–1928

IN TIME OF “THE BREAKING OF NATIONS”

Thomas Hardy

Only a man harrowing clods In a slow silent walk With an old horse that stumbles and nods Half asleep as they stalk.

Only thin smoke without flame From the heaps of couch-grass; Yet this will go onward the same Though Dynasties pass.

Yonder a maid and her wight Come whispering by: War's annals will cloud into night Ere their story die.

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