In a poem by this author, the only sound in a churchyard is the “hops from stage to stage” of a goldfinch left in a cage on a grave. The speaker asks, “Who hopeth, endureth all things? / Who thinketh no evil, but sings?” in a poem by this author protesting the blinding of birds to improve their singing. During a meeting between two people in a poem by this author, a “grin of bitterness” sweeps “Like an ominous bird a-wing.” A poem by this author is set when “The ancient pulse of germ and birth / Was shrunken hard and dry” and “The tangled bine-stems scored the sky / Like strings of broken lyres.” In that poem by him, the speaker hears the title bird sing of “[s]ome blessed Hope, whereof he knew / And I was unaware” as he leans upon a “coppice gate.” For 10 points, name this English poet of “The Darkling Thrush.” ■END■
ANSWER: Thomas Hardy (The first three poems are “The Caged Goldfinch,” “The Blinded Bird,” and “Neutral Tones”)
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