A Wife in London (December, 1899)

Thomas Hardy 1840 (Stinsford) – 1928 (Dorchester, Dorset)



I--The Tragedy

She sits in the tawny vapour
   That the City lanes have uprolled,
   Behind whose webby fold on fold
Like a waning taper
   The street-lamp glimmers cold.

A messenger's knock cracks smartly,
   Flashed news is in her hand
   Of meaning it dazes to understand
Though shaped so shortly:
   He--has fallen--in the far South Land . . .

II--The Irony

'Tis the morrow; the fog hangs thicker,
   The postman nears and goes:
   A letter is brought whose lines disclose
By the firelight flicker
   His hand, whom the worm now knows:

Fresh--firm--penned in highest feather -
   Page-full of his hoped return,
   And of home-planned jaunts by brake and burn
In the summer weather,
   And of new love that they would learn.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 25, 2023

36 sec read
171

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABBAB CBBCB ADDAD AEEAE
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 735
Words 119
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 5, 5, 5, 5

Thomas Hardy

Thomas Hardy, was not a Scottish Minister, not a Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland nor a Professor of Eccesiastical History at Edinburgh University. more…

All Thomas Hardy poems | Thomas Hardy Books

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