Yes, I danced with the devil in my dream, And I dallied with my demons as I slept; Or was it you, my tender love, Was it thoughts of you and me, That salted all my tears as I wept?
For the bitterness, the gall which I have felt, Brought me memories of life before I cried, Turned my sourness to sorrow, Lulled my aches until tomorrow, Lent me strength to face the future mollified.
Now, since I awoke, I’ve known an emptiness, A sense of having missed that magic time, When love was oh so sweet, Our happiness was complete, And that good night was always quite sublime.
Drunk Distended and Distressed Doped in a Downtown Dive what have I Done to Desire to live what have I Done to Deserve a life what Dread Deeds Do I Declare Why is all Despair Down and out and Done to Death Dipped in Diesel Dressed in Dirt Dished up Defeated and Drowned in Drink Doing my Damnedest to Die Deftly Dealt It was a Diamond from the Deck Doom’s Deliberate Dance of Death Done and Dusted Drowned in Dread IN CASE OF DEATH DO NOT RESUSCITATE
My heart has danced has trembled to the music of time has rejoiced in the moment throbbed in both joy and pain
I’ve moved to the music done all that travelled where no one has been before listened to the wind whispered to the trees sighed with the sea in its motion-hungry fervour and trembled with the waves as they shuddered towards the shore
I have given my time to the poetry of life sung its stanzas rhymed with its lusting lilt in tune with its echoing cadences
Now in the fullness of my seasons I recline and muse over time passed by
Is it to be experienced again does renewal with the Spring follow perhaps in another life whilst this one fades
The gaps which are left the shreds in the curtain of my hopes tear through the seams of my mind crossing the border into the parallel worlds in which my existence lives on matching my movements mirroring the moments since birth in the old to death in the now thus bringing on the new
And my heart now murmurs to itself in mockery and mime bridging the chasm that separates this world from the next
There is sadness, but with a quiet acceptance, in Hardy’s recall of the optimism of his ‘heydays’. He has come to an accommodation with old age. long life and a resignation which will take him content into his everlasting ‘slumber’.
Regret not me; Beneath the sunny tree I lie uncaring, slumbering peacefully.
Swift as the light I flew my faery flight; Ecstatically I moved, and feared no night.
I did not know That heydays fade and go, But deemed that what was would be always so.
I skipped at morn Between the yellowing corn, Thinking it good and glorious to be born.
I ran at eves Among the piled-up sheaves, Dreaming, “I grieve not, therefore nothing grieves.”
Now soon will come The apple, pear, and plum And hinds will sing, and autumn insects hum.
Again you will fare To cider-makings rare, And junketings; but I shall not be there.
Yet gaily sing Until the pewter ring Those songs we sang when we went gipsying.
And lightly dance Some triple-timed romance In coupled figures, and forget mischance;
And mourn not me Beneath the yellowing tree; For I shall mind not, slumbering peacefully
‘Thomas Hardy’ (1840-1928) by Walter William Ouless (National Portrait Gallery)
Readers may find it interesting to compare and contrast the lyrics of the classic Edith Piaf song . . .
Roland's Ragbag 