Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


HEREDITY by THOMAS HARDY

Poet Analysis

First Line: I AM THE FAMILY FACE
Last Line: THAT HEEDS NO CALL TO DIE.
Subject(s): ANCESTORS & ANCESTRY; LIFE CHANGE EVENTS; HERITAGE; HEREDITY;

I AM the family face;
Flesh perishes, I live on,
Projecting trait and trace
Through time to times anon,
And leaping from place to place
Over oblivion.

The years-heired feature that can
In curve and voice and eye
Despise the human span
Of durance - that is I;
The eternal thing in man,
That heeds no call to die.



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