Poem by Thomas Hardy

At a Fashionable Dinner

We sat with the banqueting-party
By the table-end –
Unmarked, – no diners out
Were we: scarce a friend
Of our own mind’s trend
Was there, though the welcome was hearty.
Then we noticed a shade extend
By a distant screen,
And I said: ‘What to you does it seem to mean,
Lavine?’

‘ – It is like my own body lying
Beyond the door
Where the servants glide in and about
The carpeted floor;
And it means my death hour! – ’
‘ – What a fancy! Who feels like dying
While these smart sallies pour,
With laughter between!
To me it is more like satin sheen,
Lavine.’

‘ – That means your new bride, when you win her:
Yes, so it must be!
It’s her satin dress, no doubt –
That shine you see –
My own corpse to me!’
And a gloom came over the dinner,
Where almost strangers were we,
As the spirit of the scene
Forsook her – the fairest of the whole thirteen –
Lavine!

1. Genitrix Laesa
2. V.R. 1819–1901
3. Over the Coffin
4. Song to an Old Burden
5. In Death Divided

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