Thomas Hardy

The Brother

O know you what I have done
To avenge our sister? She,
I thought, was wantoned with
By a man of levity:

And I lay in wait all day,
All day did I wait for him,
And dogged him to Bollard Head
When twilight dwindled dim,

And hurled him over the edge
And heard him fall below:
O would I were lying with him,
For the truth I did not know!

‘O where’s my husband?’ she asked,
As evening wore away:
‘Best you had one, forsooth,
But never had you!’ I say.

‘Yes, but I have!’ says she,
‘My Love made it up with me,
And we churched it yesterday
And mean to live happily.’

And now I go in haste
To the Head, before she’s aware,
To join him in death for the wrong
I’ve done them both out there!