Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, AT A BRIDAL, by THOMAS HARDY



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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

AT A BRIDAL, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: When you paced forth, to await maternity
Last Line: If the race all such sovereign types unknows.
Subject(s): Marriage; Weddings; Husbands; Wives


WHEN you paced forth, to wait maternity,
A dream of other offspring held my mind,
Compounded of us twain as Love designed;
Rare forms, that corporate now will never be!

Should I, too, wed as slave to Mode's decree,
And each thus found apart, of false desire,
A stolid line, whom no high aims will fire
As had fired ours could ever have mingled we;

And, grieved that lives so matched should miscompose,
Each mourn the double waste; and question dare
To the Great Dame whence incarnation flows,
Why those high-purposed children never were:
What will she answer? That she does not care
If the race all such sovereign types unknows.






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