Classic and Contemporary Poetry
LAMENT, by THOMAS HARDY Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: How she would have loved Last Line: In her yew-arched bed. Subject(s): Death; Dead, The | ||||||||
HOW she would have loved A party to-day! - Bright-hatted and gloved, With table and tray And chairs on the lawn Her smiles would have shone With welcomings.... But She is shut, she is shut From friendship's spell In the jailing shell Of her tiny cell. Or she would have reigned At a dinner to-night With ardours unfeigned, And a generous delight; All in her abode She'd have freely bestowed On her guests.... But alas, She is shut under grass Where no cups flow, Powerless to know That it might be so. And she would have sought With a child's eager glance The shy snowdrops brought By the new year's advance, And peered in the rime Of Candlemas-time For crocuses ... chanced It that she were not tranced From sights she loved best; Wholly possessed By an infinite rest! And we are here staying Amid these stale things, Who care not for gaying, And those junketings That used so to joy her, And never to cloy her As us they cloy! ... But She is shut, she is shut From the cheer of them, dead To all done and said In her yew-arched bed. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A FRIEND KILLED IN THE WAR by ANTHONY HECHT FOR JAMES MERRILL: AN ADIEU by ANTHONY HECHT TARANTULA: OR THE DANCE OF DEATH by ANTHONY HECHT CHAMPS D?ÇÖHONNEUR by ERNEST HEMINGWAY NOTE TO REALITY by TONY HOAGLAND AND THERE WAS A GREAT CALM' by THOMAS HARDY |
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