| Thomas Hardy (1840–1928). Wessex Poems and Other Verses. 1898. |
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| 14. She, to Him. II |
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| PERHAPS, long hence, when I have passed away, | |
| Some other’s feature, accent, thought like mine, | |
| Will carry you back to what I used to say, | |
| And bring some memory of your love’s decline. | |
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| Then you may pause awhile and think, “Poor jade!” | 5 |
| And yield a sigh to me—as gift benign, | |
| Not as the tittle of a debt unpaid | |
| To one who could to you her all resign— | |
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| And thus reflecting, you will never see | |
| That your thin thought, in two small words conveyed, | 10 |
| Was no such fleeting phantom-thought to me, | |
| But the Whole Life wherein my part was played; | |
| And you amid its fitful masquerade | |
A Thought—as I in yours but seem to be.
1866. | |
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