Thomas Hardy

The Orphaned Old Maid

I wanted to marry, but father said, ‘No –
’Tis weakness in women to give themselves so;
If you care for your freedom you’ll listen to me,
Make a spouse in your pocket, and let the men be.’

I spake on’t again and again: father cried,
‘Why – if you go husbanding, where shall I bide?
For never a home’s for me elsewhere than here!’
And I yielded; for father had ever been dear.

But now father’s gone, and I feel growing old,
And I’m lonely and poor in this house on the wold,
And my sweetheart that was found a partner elsewhere,
And nobody flings me a thought or a care.