Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


COMEDY by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH

Poet Analysis

First Line: THEY PARTED, WITH CLASPS OF HANDS
Last Line: AND ONCE HE HAD KNOWN HER TEARS!
Subject(s): TIME; CHANGE;

THEY parted, with clasps of hand,
And kisses, and burning tears.
They met, in a foreign land,
After some twenty years:

Met as acquaintances meet,
Smilingly, tranquil-eyed --
Not even the least little beat
Of the heart, upon either side!

They chatted of this and that,
The nothings that make up life;
She in a Gainsborough hat,
And he in black for his wife.

Ah, what a comedy this!
Neither was hurt, it appears:
Yet once she had leaned to his kiss,
And once he had known her tears!



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