She, to Him, II

Thomas Hardy 1840 (Stinsford) – 1928 (Dorchester, Dorset)



Perhaps, long hence, when I have passed away,
Some other’s feature, accent, thought like mine,
Will carry you back to what I used to say,
And bring some memory of your love’s decline.

Then you may pause awhile and think, “Poor jade!”
And yield a sigh to me—as gift benign,
Not as the tittle of a debt unpaid
To one who could to you her all resign—

And thus reflecting, you will never see
That your thin thought, in two small words conveyed,
Was no such fleeting phantom-thought to me,
But the Whole Life wherein my part was played;
And you amid its fitful masquerade
A Thought—as I in yours but seem to be.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 13, 2023

35 sec read
153

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABAB CBCB DCDCCD
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 626
Words 117
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 6

Thomas Hardy

Thomas Hardy, was not a Scottish Minister, not a Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland nor a Professor of Eccesiastical History at Edinburgh University. more…

All Thomas Hardy poems | Thomas Hardy Books

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