Thomas Hardy (Томас Гарди (Харди))
The Memorial Brass: 186–
‘Why do you weep there, O sweet lady, Why do you weep before that brass? – (I’m a mere student sketching the mediaeval) Is some late death lined there, alas? – Your father’s?.. Well, all pay the debt that paid he!’ ‘Young man, O must I tell! – My husband’s! And under His name I set mine, and my death! – Its date left vacant till my heirs should fill it, Stating me faithful till my last breath.’ – ‘Madam, that you are a widow wakes my wonder!’ ‘O wait! For last month I – remarried! And now I fear ’twas a deed amiss. We’ve just come home. And I am sick and saddened At what the new one will say to this; And will he think – think that I should have tarried? ‘I may add, surely, – with no wish to harm him – That he’s a temper – yes, I fear! And when he comes to church next Sunday morning, And sees that written... O dear, O dear!’ – ‘Madam, I swear your beauty will disarm him!’
Thomas Hardy’s other poems:
929
