In the small hours lyrics
 by Thomas Hardy
		
		
I lay in my bed and fiddled
           With a dreamland viol and bow,
And the tunes flew back to my fingers
           I had melodied years ago.
It was two or three in the morning
           When I fancy-fiddled so
Long reels and country-dances,
          And hornpipes swift and slow.
And soon anon came crossing
           The chamber in the gray
Figures of jigging fieldfolk -
           Saviours of corn and hay -
To the air of “Haste to the Wedding,”
           As after a wedding-day;
Yea, up and down the middle
           In windless whirls went they!
There danced the bride and bridegroom,
           And couples in a train,
Gay partners time and travail
           Had longwhiles stilled amain! . . .
It seemed a thing for weeping
           To find, at slumber’s wane
And morning’s sly increeping,
           That Now, not Then, held reign.