534. Snow in the Suburbs by Thomas Hardy
T Hardy read by Classic Poetry Aloud:\nhttp://www.classicpoetryaloud.com/\nGiving voice to the poetry of the past.\n\n---------------------------------------\n\nSnow in the Suburbs\nby Thomas Hardy (1840 \u2013 1928)\n\nEvery branch big with it,\nBent every twig with it;\nEvery fork like a white web-foot;\nEvery street and pavement mute:\nSome flakes have lost their way, and grope back upward when\nMeeting those meandering down they turn and descend again.\nThe palings are glued together like a wall,\nAnd there is no waft of wind with the fleecy fall.\nA sparrow enters the tree,\nWhereon immediately\nA snow-lump thrice his own slight size \nDescends on him and showers his head and eye \nAnd overturns him, \nAnd near inurns him, \nAnd lights on a nether twig, when its brush \nStarts off a volley of other lodging lumps with a rush. \nThe steps are a blanched slope, \nUp which, with feeble hope, \nA black cat comes, wide-eyed and thin; \nAnd we take him in. \n\nFirst aired: 15 March 2008\n\nFor hundreds more poetry readings, visit the Classic Poetry Aloud index.\n \nTo learn a little more about the poems and poets on Classic Poetry Aloud, join the mailing list.\n\nReading \xa9 Classic Poetry Aloud 2009