Poem by Thomas Hardy

In Childbed

In the middle of the night
Mother’s spirit came and spoke to me,
Looking weariful and white –
As ’twere untimely news she broke to me.

‘O my daughter, joyed are you
To own the weetless child you mother there;
“Men may search the wide world through,”
You think, “nor find so fair another there!”

‘Dear, this midnight time unwombs
Thousands just as rare and beautiful;
Thousands whom High Heaven foredooms
To be as bright, as good, as dutiful.

‘Source of ecstatic hopes and fears
And innocent maternal vanity,
Your fond exploit but shapes for tears
New thoroughfares in sad humanity.

‘Yet as you dream, so dreamt I
When Life stretched forth its morning ray to me;
Other views for by and by!’ . . . .
Such strange things did mother say to me.

1. Afternoon Service at Mellstock
2. At the Word ‘Farewell’
3. Tragedian to Tragedienne
4. The Three Tall Men
5. A Victorian Rehearsal

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