Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE MONUMENT-MAKER, by THOMAS HARDY Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: I chiselled her monument Last Line: Yet I hoped not quite, in her very innermost! Subject(s): Monuments | ||||||||
I CHISELLED her monument To my mind's content, Took it to the church by night, When her planet was at its height, And set it where I had figured the place in the daytime. Having niched it there I stepped back, cheered, and thought its outlines fair, And its marbles rare. Then laughed she over my shoulder as in our Maytime: 'It spells not me!' she said: 'Tells nothing about my beauty, wit, or gay time With all those, quick and dead, Of high or lowlihead, That hovered near, Including you, who carve there your devotion; But you felt none, my dear!' And then she vanished. Checkless sprang my emotion And forced a tear At seeing I'd not been truly known by her, And never prized! - that my memorial here, To consecrate her sepulchre, Was scorned, almost, By her sweet ghost: Yet I hoped not quite, in her very innermost! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...PRO PATRIA by CONSTANCE VIRGINIA CARRIER CONCORD HYMN; SUNG AT COMPLETION OF CONCORD MONUMENT, 1836 by RALPH WALDO EMERSON CHURCH MONUMENTS by GEORGE HERBERT LINES WRITTEN ON A SEAT ON THE GRAND CANAL, DUBLIN by PATRICK KAVANAGH FOR THE UNION DEAD by ROBERT LOWELL ODE; SUNG BY THE CHILDREN OF THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS by W. T. ADAMS INSCRIPTIONS: 4 by MARK AKENSIDE EUMARES by ASCLEPIADES OF SAMOS THE MAUSOLEUM by WILLIAM EDMONSTOUNE AYTOUN AND THERE WAS A GREAT CALM' by THOMAS HARDY |
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