Explore "Afternoon Service at Mellstock" by Thomas Hardy on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
(_Circa_ 1850)
ON afternoons of drowsy calm / We stood in the panelled pew, / Singing one-voiced a Tate-and-Brady psalm / To the tune of "Cambridge New."
We watched the elms, we watched the rooks, / The clouds upon the breeze, / Between the whiles of glancing at our books, / And swaying like the trees.
So mindless were those outpourings! - / Though I am not aware / That I have gained by subtle thought on things / Since we stood psalming there.