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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


IN THE MOONLIGHT by THOMAS HARDY

Poet Analysis

First Line: O LONELY WORKMAN, STANDING THERE
Last Line: WHOM DURING HER LIFE I THOUGHT NOTHING OF.'
Subject(s): MOON;

'O LONELY workman, standing there
In a dream, why do you stare and stare
At her grave, as no other grave there were?

'If your great gaunt eyes so importune
Her soul by the shine of this corpse-cold moon
Maybe you'll raise her phantom soon!'

'Why, fool, it is what I would rather see
Than all the living folk there be;
But alas, there is no such joy for me!'

'Ah - she was one you loved, no doubt,
Through good and evil, through rain and drought,
And when she passed, all your sun went out?'

'Nay: she was the woman I did not love,
Whom all the others were ranked above,
Whom during her life I thought nothing of.'



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