Skip to content
ReadingWillow structured literacy program for Australian students
Poetry Library

— Stephen Crane

I looked here;

I looked there;

Nowhere could I see my love.

And--this time--

…

Read full poem →

noun

(usually a mass noun) Lodging in a dwelling or similar living quarters afforded to travellers in hotels or on cruise ships, or prisoners, etc.

“Writers often choose accommodation when discussing complex ideas.”

Know more →

IN A WOOD

41 lines
Thomas Hardy·1840–1928·naturalism
✦
ALE beech and pine-tree blue,Set in one clay,Bough to bough cannot youBide out your day?When the rains skim and skip,Why mar sweet comradeship,Blighting with poison-dripNeighbourly spray? Heart-halt and spirit-lame,City-opprest,Unto this wood I cameAs to a nest;Dreaming that sylvan peaceOffered the harrowed ease—Nature a soft releaseFrom men’s unrest. But, having entered in,Great growths and smallShow them to men akin—Combatants all!Sycamore shoulders oak,Bines the slim sapling yoke,Ivy-spun halters chokeElms stout and tall. Touches from ash, O wych,Sting you like scorn!You, too, brave hollies, twitchSidelong from thorn.Even the rank poplars bearIlly a rival’s air,Cankering in black despairIf overborne. Since, then, no grace I findTaught me of trees,Turn I back to my kind,Worthy as these.There at least smiles abound,There discourse trills around,There, now and then, are foundLife-loyalties. 1887: 1896.
✦