Poetry and physics

I found this book recently. When I was in my early 30s I decided to go to evening class and do a couple of A levels - for no other reason than to enjoy a bit of study (well, plus the fact that I never did any A levels at school). The best time to do it is when you don't need to. Really enjoyed it and would never have read any Thomas Hardy otherwise. It was interesting to 'deconstruct' some of his poems and look more deeply into a man's life. And I think everyone should learn some physics and try to 'deconstruct' and understand some of the properties of this crazy, fascinating universe we live in. I've forgotten it all now of course.

This is one of my favorite poems:

In Time of 'the Breaking of Nations'

Only a man harrowing clods
In a slow silent walk
With an old horse that stumbles and nods
Half asleep as they stalk.


Only thin smoke without flame
From the heaps of couch-grass;
Yet this will go onward the same
Though Dynasties pass.


Yonder a maid and her wight
Come whispering by:
War's annals will cloud into night
Ere their story die.