534. Snow in the Suburbs by Thomas Hardy
b'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'