Lyric Poem · Winter
The Oxen
by Thomas Hardy · 1915
1Christmas Eve, and twelve of the clock.
2"Now they are all on their knees,"
3An elder said as we sat in a flock
4By the embers in hearthside ease.
5We pictured the meek mild creatures where
6They dwelt in their strawy pen,
7Nor did it occur to one of us there
8To doubt they were kneeling then.
Full-text availability follows the United States display decision recorded below; status can differ elsewhere.
“The Oxen” by Thomas Hardy — quilloak.com/poems/the-oxen
Quick facts
- Poem
- The Oxen
- Poet
- Thomas Hardy
- Published
- 1915
- Length
- 16 lines
- Form
- Lyric Poem, Rhyming Poems
- Themes
- Winter, Hope, Childhood
Craft notes
How this poem works
Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.
- Shape
- 16 lines · 4 quatrains
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Text, source & rights
A traceable edition
First published before 1929 and checked line by line against the cited copy. Full-text display is based on a United States term-expiry review; status can differ elsewhere.
- Author record
- Thomas Hardy1840–1928
- Source record
- Project Gutenberg eBook #3255, Moments of Vision and Miscellaneous VersesThe Oxen; Dated 1915 by Hardy; collected in Moments of Vision and Miscellaneous Verses (London: Macmillan, 1917)
- Display decision
- Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-11-04
- Publication record
- Dated 1915 by Hardy; collected in Moments of Vision and Miscellaneous Verses (London: Macmillan, 1917)
- Text fingerprint
- SHA-256 a3fe7a9144aedc41…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace normalized for web display (the double space after “years!” in line 10 is printed as one). The date line “1915.” printed under the poem is recorded here rather than as a line of verse. No other change.
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