Poem by Thomas Hardy

The Tree and the Lady

I have done all I could
For that lady I knew! Through the heats I have shaded her,
Drawn to her songsters when summer has jaded her,
Home from the heath or the wood.

At the mirth-time of May,
When my shadow first lured her, I’d donned my new bravery
Of greenth: ’twas my all. Now I shiver in slavery,
Icicles grieving me gray.

Plumed to every twig’s end
I could tempt her chair under me. Much did I treasure her
During those days she had nothing to pleasure her;
Mutely she used me as friend.

I’m a skeleton now,
And she’s gone, craving warmth. The rime sticks like a skin to me;
Through me Arcturus peers; Nor’lights shoot into me;
Gone is she, scorning my bough!

1. At the Word ‘Farewell’
2. The Three Tall Men
3. The Dead Bastard
4. The Supplanter
5. Evening Shadows

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