Read "In a Whispering Gallery" by Thomas Hardy online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
THAT whisper takes the voice / Of a Spirit's compassionings / Close, but invisible, / And throws me under a spell / At the kindling vision it brings; / And for a moment I rejoice, / And believe in transcendent things / That would mould from this muddy earth / A spot for the splendid birth / Of everlasting lives, / Whereto no night arrives; / And this gaunt gray gallery / A tabernacle of worth / On this drab-aired afternoon, / When you can barely see / Across its hazed lacune / If opposite aught there be / Of fleshed humanity / Wherewith I may commune; / Or if the voice so near / Be a soul's voice floating here.