Classic and Contemporary Poetry
AT THE WORD 'FAREWELL', by THOMAS HARDY Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: She looked like a bird from a cloud Last Line: When we came in together. Subject(s): Absence; Separation; Isolation | ||||||||
SHE looked like a bird from a cloud On the clammy lawn, Moving alone, bare-browed In the dim of dawn. The candles alight in the room For my parting meal Made all things withoutdoors loom Strange, ghostly, unreal. The hour itself was a ghost, And it seemed to me then As of chances the chance furthermost I should see her again. I beheld not where all was so fleet That a Plan of the past Which had ruled us from birthtime to meet Was in working at last: No prelude did I there perceive To a drama at all, Or foreshadow what fortune might weave From beginnings so small; But I rose as if quicked by a spur I was bound to obey, And stepped through the casement to her Still alone in the gray. 'I am leaving you.... Farewell!' I said, As I followed her on By an alley bare boughs overspread; 'I soon must be gone!' Even then the scale might have been turned Against love by a feather, - But crimson one cheek of hers burned When we came in together. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE EVENING OF THE MIND by DONALD JUSTICE CHRISTMAS AWAY FROM HOME by JANE KENYON THE PROBLEM by CHARLOTTE FISKE BATES WHEN A WOMAN LOVES A MAN by DAVID LEHMAN THIS UNMENTIONABLE FEELING by DAVID LEHMAN AND THERE WAS A GREAT CALM' by THOMAS HARDY |
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