Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

NELL BARNES by WILLIAM HENRY DAVIES

Poet Analysis

First Line: THEY LIVED APART FOR THREE LONG YEARS
Last Line: IT WAS FOR LOVE SHE DIED.
Subject(s): ABSENCE; MAN-WOMAN RELATIONSHIPS; MARRIAGE; SEPARATION; ISOLATION; MALE-FEMALE RELATIONS; WEDDINGS; HUSBANDS; WIVES;
They lived apart for three long years,
Bill Barnes and Nell, his wife;
He took his joy from other girls,
She led a wicked life.

Yet ofttimes she would pass his shop,
With some strange man awhile;
And, looking, meet her husband's frown
With her malicious smile.

Until one day, when passing there,
She saw her man had gone;
And when she saw the empty shop,
She fell down with a moan.

And when she heard that he had gone
Five thousand miles away,
And that she'd see his face no more,
She sickened from that day.

To see his face was health and life,
And when it was denied,
She could not eat, and broke her heart --
It was for love she died.



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