Artwork description:

This print was made after the poem of the same title written by Thomas Hardy in 1924. Hardy was writing about awaiting the return of his wife, following her operation to have a tumor removed. I suppose everyone knows the anxiety of waiting or of feeling bereft. Herewith is the poem complete:

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 travellers 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.

☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼

This print is pulled from a relief plate cut from rubber, a variation of letterpress. The completed edition made 6 copies. The print has a two inch margin all round and would fit straight into a standard 10x12 inch frame if required. All materials are of high quality and should present no keeping difficulty.

Materials used:

oil-based printing inks, Lambeth Cartridge paper 130gsm

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