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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

A WIFE IN LONDON by THOMAS HARDY

Poet Analysis

First Line: SHE SITS IN THE TAWNY VAPOUR
Last Line: AND OF NEW LOVE THAT THEY WOULD LEARN.
Subject(s): BOER WAR; SOUTH AFRICAN WAR;
(December 1899)

I

SHE sits in the tawny vapour
That the Thames-side lanes have uprolled,
Behind whose webby fold on fold
Like a waning taper
The street-lamp glimmers cold.

A messenger's knock cracks smartly,
Flashed news is in her hand
Of meaning it dazes to understand
Though shaped so shortly:
He - has fallen - in the far South Land....

II

'Tis the morrow; the fog hangs thicker,
The postman nears and goes:
A letter is brought whose lines disclose
By the firelight flicker
His hand, whom the worm now knows:

Fresh - firm - penned in highest feather -
Page-full of his hoped return,
And of home-planned jaunts by brake and burn
In the summer weather,
And of new love that they would learn.



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