Last night I had the pleasure of hosting Sir JJ Drinkwater and Dame Kghia Gherardi at Ormsby Hall for totally delightful conversation at my monthly salon. No photos to show, but I can share the poem Dame Kghia contributed, by Mr Thomas Hardy:
Neutral Tones
We stood by a pond that winter day,
And the sun was white, as though chidden of God,
And a few leaves lay on the starving sod,
—They had fallen from an ash, and were gray.
Your eyes on me were as eyes that rove
Over tedious riddles solved years ago;
And some words played between us to and fro—
On which lost the more by our love.
The smile on your mouth was the deadest thing
Alive enough to have strength to die;
And a grin of bitterness swept thereby
Like an ominous bird a-wing…
Since then, keen lessons that love deceives,
And wrings with wrong, have shaped to me
Your face, and the God-curst sun, and a tree,
And a pond edged with grayish leaves.
The contrast with Miss Rossetti’s poem made for wonderful discussion.