The Tenant-For-Life

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



The sun said, watching my watering-pot
   "Some morn you'll pass away;
These flowers and plants I parch up hot -
   Who'll water them that day?

"Those banks and beds whose shape your eye
   Has planned in line so true,
New hands will change, unreasoning why
   Such shape seemed best to you.

"Within your house will strangers sit,
   And wonder how first it came;
They'll talk of their schemes for improving it,
   And will not mention your name.

"They'll care not how, or when, or at what
   You sighed, laughed, suffered here,
Though you feel more in an hour of the spot
   Than they will feel in a year

"As I look on at you here, now,
   Shall I look on at these;
But as to our old times, avow
   No knowledge--hold my peace! . . .

"O friend, it matters not, I say;
   Bethink ye, I have shined
On nobler ones than you, and they
   Are dead men out of mind!"

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 25, 2023

49 sec read
68

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABAB CDCD EFEF XXAX GXGX BHBH
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 869
Words 161
Stanzas 6
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4

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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