Thomas Hardy

The Memorial Brass: 186–

‘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!’