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Thomas Hardy - The Cheval-Glass
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Why do you harbour that great cheval-glass
      Filling up your narrow room?
      You never preen or plume,
Or look in a week at your full-length figure —
      Picture of bachelor gloom!


`Well, when I dwelt in ancient England,
      Renting the valley farm,
      Thoughtless of all heart-harm,
I used to gaze at the parson`s daughter,
      A creature of nameless charm.


`Thither there came a lover and won her,
      Carried her off from my View.
      O it was then I knew
Misery of a cast undreamt of —
      More than, indeed, my due!


`Then far rumours of her ill-usage
      Came, like a chilling breath
      When a man languisheth;
Followed by news that her mind lost balance,
      And, in a space, of her death.


`Soon sank her father; and next was the auction —
      Everything to be sold:
      Mid things new and old
Stood this glass in her former chamber,
      Long in her use, I was told.


`Well, I awaited the sale and bought it….
      There by my bed it stands,
      And as the dawn expands
Often I see her pale-faced form there
      Brushing her hairs bright bands.


`There, too, at pallid midnight moments
      Quick she will come to my call,
      Smile from the frame withal
Ponderingly, as she used to regard me
      Passing her father`s wall.


`So that it was for it`s revelations
      I brought it oversea,
      And drag it about with me….
Anon I shall break it and bury its, fragments
      Where my grave is to be.
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