xt7qjq0stw34_1510 https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7qjq0stw34/data/mets.xml https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7qjq0stw34/data/1997ms474.dao.xml unknown archival material 1997ms474 English University of Kentucky The physical rights to the materials in this collection are held by the University of Kentucky Special Collections Research Center. Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. W. Hugh Peal manuscript collection Thomas Hardy letter to [Clement K.] Shorter in a privately printed copy of Hardy's Domicilium for Florence Emily Hardy text 43.94 Cubic Feet 86 boxes, 4 oversize boxes, 22 items Poor-Good Peal accession no. 11453. Thomas Hardy letter to [Clement K.] Shorter in a privately printed copy of Hardy's Domicilium for Florence Emily Hardy 2017 https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7qjq0stw34/data/1997ms474/Box_14/Folder_59/Multipage4799.pdf 1904 June 12, 1918 1918 1904 June 12, 1918
Scope and Contents
Peal accession no. 7909.
section false xt7qjq0stw34_1510 xt7qjq0stw34

{HARDY (T.) DOMICILIUM, second edition, four leaves, no.2?) of Q5}

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4230. Printed for Florence Emily Hardy at the Ohisioielc

Press . . . Juli, 1918

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DOMICILIUM
BY THOMAS HARDY

I.
a;

THE following lines, entitled “ Domicilium,” are the
earliest known poem by Mr. Thomas Hardy. It was
written somewhere between the years 1857 and I 860,
while he was still living with his parents at the charm—
ing cottage described in the verses, the birthplace of
both himself and his father. The inﬂuence of Words-
worth, a favourite author of the youthful poet’s, will
be clearly perceived, also a strong feeling for the

unique and desolate beauty of the adjoining heath.

DOMICILIUM

T faces west, and round the back and sides
High beeches, bending, hang a veil of boughs,
And sweep against the roof. Wild honeysucks
Climb on the walls, and seem to sprout a wish
(If we may fancy wish of trees and plants)
To overtop the apple-trees hard by.

Red roses, lilacs, varigated [sic] box

Are there in plenty, and such hardy ﬂowers
As ﬂourish best untrained. Adjoining these
Are herbs and esculents; and farther still
A ﬁeld; then cottages with trees, and last
The distant hills and sky.

Behind, the scene is wilder. Heath and furze
Are everything that seems to grow and thrive
Upon the uneven ground. A stunted thorn
Stands here and there, indeed; and from a pit
An oak uprises, springing from a seed

Dropped by some bird a hundred years ago.
5

In days bygone—-
Long gone—my father’s mother, who is now
Blest with the blest, would take me out to walk.
At such a time I once inquired of her
How looked the spot when ﬁrst she settled here.
The answer I remember. “ Fifty years
Have passed Since then, my child, and change has marked
The face of all things. Yonder garden—plots
And orchards were uncultivated slopes
O’ergrown with bramble bushes, furze, and thorn :
That road a narrow path shut in by ferns,
Which, almost trees, obscured the passer-by.

Our house stood quite alone, and those tall ﬁrs
And beeches were not planted. Snakes and efts
Swarmed in the summer days, and nightly bats
Would ﬂy about our bedrooms. Heathcroppers

Lived on the hills, and were our only friends;
So wild it was when ﬁrst we settled here.”

Twenty—ﬁve copies printed for Florence Emily Hardy
at the Claiswick Press, London, EC. 714]} 1918

This is No. 2 3.

Hit;

HARDY (Thomas). DOMICILIUM. London, 1916. Small 4to,
original wrapper. $250.00

;“:“:"‘Very rare. Only 25 copies privately printed of this, Hardy’s earliest Poem.

Signed by F. E. H. Containing A. L. S. from Hardy to Clement Shorter, 1p
12mo, inserted.