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Won't you help support DayPoems? The Well-BelovedBy Thomas Hardy6/2/1840-1/11/1928I wayed by star and planet shine Towards the dear one's home At Kingsbere, there to make her mine When the next sun upclomb. I edged the ancient hill and wood Beside the Ikling Way, Nigh where the Pagan temple stood In the world's earlier day. And as I quick and quicker walked On gravel and on green, I sang to sky, and tree, or talked Of her I called my queen. - "O faultless is her dainty form, And luminous her mind; She is the God-created norm Of perfect womankind!" A shape whereon one star-blink gleamed Glode softly by my side, A woman's; and her motion seemed The motion of my bride. And yet methought she'd drawn erstwhile Adown the ancient leaze, Where once were pile and peristyle For men's idolatries. - "O maiden lithe and lone, what may Thy name and lineage be, Who so resemblest by this ray My darling?--Art thou she?" The Shape: "Thy bride remains within Her father's grange and grove." - "Thou speakest rightly," I broke in, "Thou art not she I love." - "Nay: though thy bride remains inside Her father's walls," said she, "The one most dear is with thee here, For thou dost love but me." Then I: "But she, my only choice, Is now at Kingsbere Grove?" Again her soft mysterious voice: "I am thy only Love." Thus still she vouched, and still I said, "O sprite, that cannot be!" . . . It was as if my bosom bled, So much she troubled me. The sprite resumed: "Thou hast transferred To her dull form awhile My beauty, fame, and deed, and word, My gestures and my smile. "O fatuous man, this truth infer, Brides are not what they seem; Thou lovest what thou dreamest her; I am thy very dream!" - "O then," I answered miserably, Speaking as scarce I knew, "My loved one, I must wed with thee If what thou say'st be true!" She, proudly, thinning in the gloom: "Though, since troth-plight began, I've ever stood as bride to groom, I wed no mortal man!" Thereat she vanished by the Cross That, entering Kingsbere town, The two long lanes form, near the fosse Below the faneless Down. - When I arrived and met my bride, Her look was pinched and thin, As if her soul had shrunk and died, And left a waste within. DayPoems Poem No. 1037 Comment on DayPoems? If you are like us, you have strong feelings about poetry, and about each poem you read. Let it all out! Comment on this poem, any poem, DayPoems, other poetry places or the art of poetry at DayPoems Feedback. Won't you help support DayPoems? Click here to learn more about how you can keep DayPoems on the Web . . . Copyright The DayPoems web site, www.daypoems.net, is copyright 2001-2005 by Timothy K. Bovee. All rights reserved. The authors of poetry and other material appearing on DayPoems retain full rights to their work. Any requests for publication in other venues must be negotiated separately with the authors. The editor of DayPoems will gladly assist in putting interested parties in contact with the authors. |
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