Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, A CHARACTER, by AUBREY THOMAS DE VERE


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

A CHARACTER, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: She scarce can tell if she have loved or not
Last Line: And o'er it pipes the thrush and builds the wren.


SHE scarce can tell if she have loved or not;
She of her heart no register has kept:
She knows but this, that once too blest her lot
Appeared for earth; and that ere long she wept.

Upon life's daily task without pretence
She moves; and many love her, all revere:
She will be full of joy when summoned hence,
Yet not unhappy seems while lingering here.

If once her breast the storms of anguish tore
On that pure lake no weeds or scum they cast:
Time has ta'en from her much, but given her more;
And of his gifts the best will be the last.

Her parents lie beneath the churchyard grass;
On her own strength and foresight she is thrown,
Who, while her brothers played, too timid was
To join their sports; and played or sighed alone.

Her heart is as a spot of hallowed ground
Filled with old tombs and sacred to the Past,
Such as near villages remote is found,
Or rain-washed chancel in some woodland waste:

It once was pierced each day with some new stone,
And thronged with weeping women and sad men;
But now it lies with grass and flowers o'ergrown,
And o'er it pipes the thrush and builds the wren.





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