by Thomas Hardy (1840 - 1928)
Nobody Comes
Language: English
Tree-leaves labour up and down, And through them the fainting light Succumbs to the crawl of night. Outside in the road the telegraph wire To the town from the darkening land Intones to travelers like a spectral lyre Swept by a spectral hand. A car comes up, with lamps full-glare, That flash upon a tree: It has nothing to do with me, And whangs along in a world of its own, Leaving a blacker air; And mute by the gate I stand again alone, And nobody pulls up there.
Text Authorship:
- by Thomas Hardy (1840 - 1928), written 1924, appears in Human Shows, Far Phantasies, Songs, and Trifles, first published 1925 [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Helen Grime (b. 1981), "Nobody Comes", 2008 [ bass and piano ], Chester Music
Publisher: WiseMusic [external link]  [sung text not yet checked]
Researcher for this page: Joost van der Linden [Guest Editor]
This text was added to the website: 2025-12-25
Line count: 14
Word count: 89