The Heart of Thomas Hardy
Sir John Betjeman * Track #6 On This Record was Made by John Betjeman on the 9th day of June 1959
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Album This Record was Made by John Betjeman on the 9th day of June 1959
- #1Middlesex
Sir John Betjeman
- #2Harrow-on-the-Hill
Sir John Betjeman
- #3Upper Lambourne
Sir John Betjeman
- #4Wantage Bells
Sir John Betjeman
- #5The Heart of Thomas Hardy
Sir John Betjeman
- #6
The Arrest of Oscar Wilde at the Cadogan HotelSir John Betjeman
- #7Devonshire Street W.1
Sir John Betjeman
- #8
In a Bath TeashopSir John Betjeman
- #9The Irish Unionist’s Farewell to Greta Hellstrom in 1922
Sir John Betjeman
- #10Diary of a Church Mouse
Sir John Betjeman
- #11Felixstowe, or The Last of Her Order
Sir John Betjeman
The Heart of Thomas Hardy by Sir John Betjeman
Performed by
Sir John BetjemanThe Heart of Thomas Hardy Lyrics
The heart of Thomas Hardy flew out of Stinsford churchyard
A little thumping fig, it rocketed over the elm trees
Lighter than air it flew straight to where its Creator
Waited in golden nimbus, just as in eighteen sixty
Hardman and son of Brum had depicted Him in the chancel
Slowly out of the grass, slitting the mounds in the centre
Riving apart the roots, rose the new covered corpses
Tess and Jude and His Worship, various unmarried mothers
Woodmen, cutters of turf, adulterers, church restorers
Turning aside the stones thump on the upturned churchyard
Soaring over the elm trees slower than Thomas Hardy
Weighted down with a Conscience, now for the first time fleshly
Taking form as a growth hung from the feet like a sponge-bag
There, in the heart of the nimbus, twittered the heart of Hardy
There, on the edge of the nimbus, slowly revolved the corpses
Radiating around the twittering heart of Hardy
Slowly started to turn in the light of their own Creator
Died away in the night as frost will blacken a dahlia