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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


ON THE PERFORMANCE OF THOMAS HARDY'S .. 'THE QUEEN OF CORNWALL' by JOHN DRINKWATER

Poet Analysis

First Line: LONG YEARS AGO ON CORNISH LAND
Last Line: IN SONG BEFORE WE SLEEP.
Subject(s): HARDY, THOMAS (1840-1928); PLAYS & PLAYWRIGHTS ; POETRY & POETS; DRAMATISTS;

LONG years ago on Cornish land
A King, his Queen, and her lover true
Lived out a luckless tale,
And the Breton maid surnamed Whitehand;
And ever the old years yet are new,
And the story does not fail.

It does not fail. Abroad in the south
Is news again of these that made
Love grieve in the dawn of time;
A poet has touched the dumb dead mouth
Of every one, and shade by shade
They steal upon his rhyme.

O luckless love of so little date;
O happy love so long to abide
For men to praise and weep;
O happy world where bitter fate
Is sweetened thus of all its pride
In song before we sleep.



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