Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE MEMORIAL BRASS: 186-, by THOMAS HARDY


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE MEMORIAL BRASS: 186-, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Why do you weep there, o sweet lady
Last Line: - 'madam, I swear your beauty will disarm him!'


'WHY do you weep there, O sweet lady,
Why do you weep before that brass? -
(I'm a mere student sketching the mediaeval)
Is some late death lined there, alas? -
Your father's? ... Well, all pay the debt that paid he!'

'Young man, O must I tell! - My husband's! And under
His name I set mine, and my death! -
Its date left vacant till my heirs should fill it,
Stating me faithful till my last breath.'
- 'Madam, that you are a widow wakes my wonder!'

'O wait! For last month I - remarried!
And now I fear 'twas a deed amiss.
We've just come home. And I am sick and saddened
At what the new one will say to this;
And will he think - think that I should have tarried?

'I may add, surely, - with no wish to harm him -
That he's a temper - yes, I fear!
And when he comes to church next Sunday morning,
And sees that written ... O dear, O dear!'
- 'Madam, I swear your beauty will disarm him!'





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