Poem by Thomas Hardy

A Daughter Returns

I like not that dainty-cut raiment, those earrings of pearl,
I like not the light in that eye;
I like not the note of that voice. Never so was the girl
Who a year ago bade me good-bye!

Hadst but come bare and moneyless, worn in the vamp, weather-gray,
But innocent still as before,
How warmly I’d lodged thee! But sport thy new gains far away;
I pray thee now – come here no more!

And yet I’ll not try to blot out every memory of thee;
I’ll think of thee – yes, now and then:
One who’s watched thee since Time called thee out o’ thy mother and me
Must think of thee; aye, I know when! . . .

When the cold sneer of dawn follows night-shadows black as a hearse,
And the rain filters down the fruit tree,
And the tempest mouths into the flue-top a word like a curse,
Then, then I shall think, think of thee!

1. Genitrix Laesa
2. Song from Heine
3. V.R. 1819–1901
4. Paths of Former Time
5. Over the Coffin

Print

1279 Views

Last Poems

To Russian version