The Memorial Brass: 186-

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Title:     The Memorial Brass: 186-
Author: Thomas Hardy [More Titles by Hardy]

"Why do you weep there, O sweet lady,
Why do you weep before that brass? -
(I'm a mere student sketching the mediaeval)
Is some late death lined there, alas? -
Your father's? . . . Well, all pay the debt that paid he!"

"Young man, O must I tell!--My husband's! And under
His name I set mine, and my DEATH! -
Its date left vacant till my heirs should fill it,
Stating me faithful till my last breath."
- "Madam, that you are a widow wakes my wonder!"

"O wait! For last month I--remarried!
And now I fear 'twas a deed amiss.
We've just come home. And I am sick and saddened
At what the new one will say to this;
And will he think--think that I should have tarried?

"I may add, surely,--with no wish to harm him -
That he's a temper--yes, I fear!
And when he comes to church next Sunday morning,
And sees that written . . . O dear, O dear!
- "Madam, I swear your beauty will disarm him!"

[The end]
Thomas Hardy's poem: Memorial Brass: 186-

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