Featured Poem: At a Lunar Eclipse by Thomas Hardy

Some of us might be feeling slightly drowsy this morning, that's if you were amongst the many sky-watchers who stayed up into the early hours to witness the 'Super Blood Moon'. The lunar eclipse coincided with the Moon in its closest orbit to the earth, casting a red glow in a moon larger-than-usual across the sky - quite a sight to behold, and one that won't happen again until 2033.

If you were too busy sleeping to catch the Super Blood Moon as it was 'live' in the skies, then this poem by Thomas Hardy might just do the job of helping to recreate the atmosphere - along with some pictures, of course.

At a Lunar Eclipse

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 earthly show,
Nation at war with nation, brains that teem,
Heroes, and women fairer than the skies?

Thomas Hardy