Poem by Thomas Hardy

A Question of Marriage

‘I yield you my whole heart, Countess,’ said he;
‘Come, Dear, and be queen of my studio.’
‘No, sculptor. You’re merely my friend,’ said she:
‘We dine our artists; but marry them – no.’

‘Be it thus,’ he replied. And his love, so strong,
He subdued as a stoic should. Anon
He wived some damsel who’d loved him long,
Of lineage noteless; and chiselled on.

And a score years passed. As a master-mind
The world made much of his marching fame,
And his wife’s little charms, with his own entwined,
Won day after day increased acclaim.

The countess-widow had closed with a mate
In rank and wealth of her own degree,
And they moved among the obscurely great
Of an order that had no novelty.

And oldening – neither with blame nor praise –
Their stately lives begot no stir,
And she saw that when death should efface her days
All men would abandon thought of her;

And said to herself full gloomily:
‘Far better for me had it been to shine
The wench of a genius such as he
Than rust as the wife of a spouse like mine!’

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

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