Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE TO-BE-FORGOTTEN, by THOMAS HARDY Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: I heard a small sad sound Last Line: And seeing it we mourn.' Subject(s): Transience; Impermanence | ||||||||
I I HEARD a small sad sound, And stood awhile among the tombs around: 'Wherefore, old friends,' said I, 'are you distrest, Now, screened from life's unrest?' II - 'O not at being here; But that our future second death is near; When, with the living, memory of us numbs, And blank oblivion comes! III 'These, our sped ancestry, Lie here embraced by deeper death than we; Nor shape nor thought of theirs can you descry With keenest backward eye. IV 'They count as quite forgot; They are as men who have existed not; Theirs is a loss past loss of fitful breath; It is the second death. V 'We here, as yet, each day Are blest with dear recall; as yet, can say We hold in some soul loved continuance Of shape and voice and glance. VI 'But what has been will be - First memory, then oblivion's swallowing sea; Like men foregone, shall we merge into those Whose story no one knows. VII 'For which of us could hope To show in life that world-awakening scope Granted the few whose memory none lets die, But all men magnify? VIII 'We were but Fortune's sport; Things true, things lovely, things of good report We neither shunned nor sought ... We see our bourne, And seeing it we mourn.' | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...FROM THE SPANISH by JAMES WELDON JOHNSON CHAMBER MUSIC: 17 by JAMES JOYCE SOUTHERN GOTHIC by DONALD JUSTICE THE BEACH IN AUGUST by WELDON KEES THE MAN SPLITTING WOOD IN THE DAYBREAK by GALWAY KINNELL THE SEEKONK WOODS by GALWAY KINNELL AND THERE WAS A GREAT CALM' by THOMAS HARDY |
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