| Thomas Hardy (1840–1928). Wessex Poems and Other Verses. 1898. |
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| 15. She, to Him. III |
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| I WILL be faithful to thee; aye, I will! | |
| And Death shall choose me with a wondering eye | |
| That he did not discern and domicile | |
| One his by right ever since that last Good-bye! | |
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| I have no care for friends, or kin, or prime | 5 |
| Of manhood who deal gently with me here; | |
| Amid the happy people of my time | |
| Who work their love’s fulfilment, I appear | |
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| Numb as a vane that cankers on its point, | |
| True to the wind that kissed ere canker came; | 10 |
| Despised by souls of Now, who would disjoint | |
| The mind from memory, and make Life all aim, | |
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| My old dexterities of hue quite gone, | |
And nothing left for Love to look upon.
1866. | |
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