At a Lunar Eclipse by Thomas Hardy

This is a very poor picture of the lunar eclipse last night.  It was worth getting up at 3.00 a.m. to see it though.

I was at a funeral today and my cousin gave the eulogy and quoted this poem by Thomas Hardy.

Thy shadow, Earth, from Pole to Central Sea,
Now steals along upon the Moon's meek shine
In even monochrome and curving line
Of imperturbable serenity.

How shall I link such sun-cast symmetry
With the torn troubled form I know as thine,
That profile, placid as a brow divine,
With continents of moil and misery?

And can immense Mortality but throw
So small a shade, and Heaven's high human scheme
Be hemmed within the coasts yon arc implies?

Is such the stellar gauge of earthy show,
Nation at war with nation, brains that teem,
Heroes, and women fairer than the skies?