Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE MARBLE-STREETED TOWN by THOMAS HARDY

Poet Analysis

First Line: I REACH THE MARBLE-STREETED TOWN
Last Line: HAS HEARD HER NAME.
I REACH the marble-streeted town,
Whose 'Sound' outbreathes its air
Of sharp sea-salts;
I see the movement up and down
As when she was there.
Ships of all countries come and go,
The bandsmen boom in the sun
A throbbing waltz;
The schoolgirls laugh along the Hoe
As when she was one.

I move away as the music rolls:
The place seems not to mind
That she - of old
The brightest of its native souls -
Left it behind!
Over this green aforedays she
On light treads went and came,
Yea, times untold;
Yet none here knows her history -
Has heard her name.



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