Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE DEAD AND THE LIVING ONE, by THOMAS HARDY Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: The dead woman lay in her first night's grave Last Line: There was a deeper gloom around. Subject(s): World War I; First World War | ||||||||
THE dead woman lay in her first night's grave, And twilight fell from the clouds' concave, And those she had asked to forgive forgave. The woman passing came to a pause By the heaped white shapes of wreath and cross, And looked upon where the other was. And as she mused there thus spoke she: 'Never your countenance did I see, But you've been a good good friend to me!' Rose a plaintive voice from the sod below: 'O woman whose accents I do not know, What is it that makes you approve me so?' 'O dead one, ere my soldier went, I heard him saying, with warm intent, To his friend, when won by your blandishment: '"I would change for that lass here and now! And if I return I may break my vow To my present Love, and contrive somehow '"To call my own this new-found pearl, Whose eyes have the light, whose lips the curl I always have looked for in a girl!" '- And this is why that by ceasing to be - Though never your countenance did I see - You prove you a good good friend to me; 'And I pray each hour for your soul's repose In gratitude for your joining those No lover will clasp when his campaigns close.' Away she turned, when arose to her eve A martial phantom of gory dye, That said, with a thin and far-off sigh: 'O sweetheart, neither shall I clasp you! For the foe this day has pierced me through, And sent me to where she is. Adieu! - 'And forget not when the night-wind's whine Calls over this turf where her limbs recline, That it travels on to lament by mine.' There was a cry by the white-flowered mound, There was a laugh from underground, There was a deeper gloom around. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...D'ANNUNZIO by ERNEST HEMINGWAY 1915: THE TRENCHES by CONRAD AIKEN TO OUR PRESIDENT by KATHARINE LEE BATES THE HORSES by KATHARINE LEE BATES CHILDREN OF THE WAR by KATHARINE LEE BATES THE U-BOAT CREWS by KATHARINE LEE BATES THE RED CROSS NURSE by KATHARINE LEE BATES WAR PROFITS by KATHARINE LEE BATES THE UNCHANGEABLE by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN AND THERE WAS A GREAT CALM' by THOMAS HARDY |
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