Love

She, to Him: IV

by Thomas Hardy 1840–1928

From Wessex Poems and Other Verses

LoveTime & Brevity

This love puts all humanity from me;
I can but maledict her, pray her dead,
For giving love and getting love of thee—
Feeding a heart that else mine own had fed!

How much I love I know not, life not known,
Save as some unit I would add love by;
But this I know, my being is but thine own—
Fused from its separateness by ecstasy.

And thus I grasp thy amplitudes, of her
Ungrasped, though helped by nigh-regarding eyes;
Canst thou then hate me as an envier
Who see unrecked what I so dearly prize?
Believe me, Lost One, Love is lovelier
The more it shapes its moan in selfish-wise.

1866.

MLA

Hardy, Thomas. “She, to Him: IV.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/hardy/892/.

Chicago

Hardy, Thomas. “She, to Him: IV.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/hardy/892/.

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