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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

AT THE WAR OFFICE, LONDON by THOMAS HARDY

Poet Analysis

First Line: LAST YEAR I CALLED THIS WORLD OF GAINGIVINGS
Last Line: FROM IND TO OCCIDENT.
Subject(s): BOER WAR; SOUTH AFRICAN WAR;
(Affixing the Lists of Killed and Wounded: December 1899)

I

LAST year I called this world of gaingivings
The darkest thinkable, and questioned sadly
If my own land could heave its pulse less gladly,
So charged it seemed with circumstance that brings
The tragedy of things.

II

Yet at that censured time no heart was rent
Or feature blanched of parent, wife, or daughter
By hourly posted sheets of scheduled slaughter;
Death waited Nature's wont; Peace smiled unshent
From Ind to Occident.



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