Read "An August Midnight" by Thomas Hardy online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
I. A SHADED lamp and a waving blind, / And the beat of a clock from a distant floor: / On this scene enter-winged, horned, and spined- / A longlegs, a moth, and a dumbledore; / While 'mid my page there idly stands / A sleepy fly, that rubs its hands . . .
II. Thus meet we five, in this still place, / At this point of time, at this point in space. / -My guests parade my new-penned ink, / Or bang at the lamp-glass, whirl, and sink. / "God's humblest, they! " I muse. Yet why? / They know Earth-secrets that know not I.