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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


THE LAST PERFORMANCE by THOMAS HARDY

Poet Analysis

First Line: I AM PLAYING MY OLDEST TUNES,' DECLARED SHE
Last Line: AND WONDERED HOW SHE KNEW.

'I AM playing my oldest tunes,' declared she,
'All the old tunes I know, -
Those I learnt ever so long ago.'
- Why she should think just then she'd play them
Silence cloaks like snow.

When I returned from the town at nightfall
Notes continued to pour
As when I had left two hours before:
'It's the very last time,' she said in closing;
'From now I play no more.'

A few morns onward found her fading,
And, as her life outflew,
I thought of her playing her tunes right through;
And I felt she had known of what was coming,
And wondered how she knew.



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