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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


THE PITY OF IT by THOMAS HARDY

Poet Analysis

First Line: I WALKED IN LOAMY WESSEX LANES AFAR
Last Line: AND THEIR BROOD PERISH EVERLASTINGLY.'
Subject(s): WORLD WAR I; FIRST WORLD WAR;

I WALKED in loamy Wessex lanes, afar
From rail-track and from highway, and I heard
In field and farmstead many an ancient word
Of local lineage like 'Thu bist', 'Er war',

'Ich woll', 'Er sholl', and by-talk similar,
Nigh as they speak who in this month's moon gird
At England's very loins, thereunto spurred
By gangs whose glory threats and slaughters are.

Then seemed a Heart crying: 'Whosoever they be
At root and bottom of this, who flung this flame
Between kin folk kin tongued even as are we,

'Sinister, ugly, lurid, be their fame;
May their familiars grow to shun their name,
And their brood perish everlastingly.'



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