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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


SATIRES OF CIRCUMSTANCE: 9. AT THE ALTAR-RAIL by THOMAS HARDY

Poet Analysis

First Line: MY BRIDE IS NOT COMING, ALAS!' SAYS THE GROOM
Last Line: "I HAD EATEN THE APPLE ERE YOU WERE WEANED.""'"
Subject(s): LOVE - MARITAL; MARRIAGE; WEDDED LOVE; MARRIAGE - LOVE; WEDDINGS; HUSBANDS; WIVES;

'MY bride is not coming, alas!' says the groom,
And the telegram shakes in his hand. 'I own
It was hurried! We met at a dancing-room
When I went to the Cattle-Show alone,
And then, next night, where the Fountain leaps,
And the Street of the Quarter-Circle sweeps.

'Ay, she won me to ask her to be my wife -
'Twas foolish perhaps! - to forsake the ways
Of the flaring town for a farmer's life.
She agreed. And we fixed it. Now she says:
"It's sweet of you, dear, to prepare me a nest,
But a swift, short, gay life suits me best.
What I really am you have never gleaned;
I had eaten the apple ere you were weaned."'



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