Never mind the rain

You are sick of my prejudice about Thomas Hardy!  But here is a poem which captures a certain rural stoicism about the rain - not that they had any choice - and one person who does not notice even that it is raining, for the most final reason of all.  It's presumably set in nineteenth century Dorset, but the characters and their roles have an almost medieval feel about them.  (My illustration is the wildly inappropriate A Sudden Shower Over Ohashi and Atake, by Utagawa Hiroshige, a Japanese master print maker of the nineteenth century too, but a world and more away).  This is Thomas Hardy's Autumn Rain Scene.

There trudges one to a merry-making
With sturdy swing,
On whom the rain comes down.

To fetch the saving medicament
Is another bent,
On whom the rain comes down.

One slowly drives his herd to the stall
Ere ill befall,
On whom the rain comes down.

This bears his missives of life and death
With quickening breath,
On whom the rain comes down.

One watches for signals of wreck or war
From the hill afar,
On whom the rain comes down.

No care if he gain a shelter or none,
Unhired moves on,
On whom the rain comes down.

And another knows nought of its chilling fall
Upon him at all,
On whom the rain comes down.

Comments

[glo]

Feel free to nurtur your prejudices, Mr Bagshaw; personally I have no prejudice about other people's prejudices as soon as people explain on what their prejudices are based... although I am not sure a prejudice can be really explained, it must be something rather instinctive or intuitive, I guess.
Do you also have a prejudice about Flaubert, or am I just misinterpreting?
Unlike Dark Puss and Mr Cornflower, I am going to comment on the poem itself. I like it, it has really a modern twist and it ressembles more like a C20th poem than like a C19th poem.
I also like the Japanese print. I have a postard (that I bought at the British Museum years ago) showing a white cat sitting on a window shelf and looking at the fields outside the window - it is rather a bompstable cat, I must say. The picture is by Ando Hiroshige and from "Hundred views of Edo". I think I will keep it on my desk now. I also have the picture of a sleeping ginger cat by Ano Chi, which is a very peaceful and soothing picture. I have no idea who Ano Chi is but it must be a Chinese painter.

[Dark Puss]

Dear Mr Cornflower, try Schumann's Fantasiestucke for Clarinet. Not great music, but enjoyable!

[Mr Cornflower]

Always a good exercise to try to lean against one's prejudices. I even ate baked beans once and lived. Your animus against Hardy I feel against Schumann...but I found myself delighting in the Kinderszenen recently.
On the other hand there is a certain release in just letting rip. A friend of mine once sat the entrance examination for All Souls, where one three hour paper requires the candidate to discourse on a single word title. In his year the word was "Taste", and he began: "Taste is purely a matter of prejudices. Here are some of mine..." (He failed)