To An Orphan Child

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



A Whimsey

     AH, child, thou art but half thy darling mother's;
        Hers couldst thou wholly be,
     My light in thee would outglow all in others;
        She would relive to me.
     But niggard Nature's trick of birth
        Bars, lest she overjoy,
     Renewal of the loved on earth
        Save with alloy.

     The Dame has no regard, alas, my maiden,
        For love and loss like mine--
     No sympathy with mind-sight memory-laden;
        Only with fickle eyne.
     To her mechanic artistry
        My dreams are all unknown,
     And why I wish that thou couldst be
        But One's alone!

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

29 sec read
138

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABABCXCX DXDDBEBE
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 603
Words 94
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 8, 8

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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