Poem by Thomas Hardy

He Did Not Know Me

   (Woman’s Sorrow Song)

He said: ‘I do not know you;
You are not she who came
And made my heart grow tame?’
I laughed: ‘The same!’

Still said he: ‘I don’t know you.’
‘But I am your Love!’ laughed I:
‘Yours – faithful ever – till I die,
And pulseless lie!’

Yet he said: ‘I don’t know you.’
Freakful, I went away,
And met pale Time, with ‘Pray,
What means his Nay?’

Said Time: ‘He does not know you
In your mask of Comedy.’
‘But,’ said I, ‘that I have chosen to be:
Tragedy he.’

‘True; hence he did not know you.’
‘But him I could recognize?’
‘Yea. Tragedy is true guise,
Comedy lies.’

1. The Supplanter
2. Afternoon Service at Mellstock
3. At the Word ‘Farewell’
4. The Children and Sir Nameless
5. Tragedian to Tragedienne

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