Thomas Hardy: Collected Lyrics
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Public-domain lyrics

Amabel

Thomas Hardy

“Amabel” as printed in Wessex Poems and Other Verses (1899).

Thomas Hardy: Collected Lyrics Text 6 1899 · historical text
Public domainSong lyricsWessex verse
Complete public-domain lyrics

This text comes from Wessex Poems and Other Verses, a historical songbook transcribed on Wikisource and reproduced from the pinned revision linked below.

Verse 1

I MARKED her ruined hues,

Her custom-straitened views,

And asked, “Can there indwell

My Amabel?"

I looked upon her gown,

Once rose, now earthen brown:

The change was like the knell

Of Amabel.

Verse 2

Her step's mechanic ways

Had lost the life of May's;

Her laugh, once sweet in swell,

Spoilt Amabel.

I mused: "Who sings the strain

I sang cre warmth did wane?

Who thinks its numbers spell

His Amabel?"—

Knowing that, though Love cease,

Love's race shows undecrease:

All find in dorp or dell

An Amabel.

—I felt that I could creep

To some housetop, and weep,

That Time the tyrant fell

Ruled Amabel!

I said (the while I sighed

That love like ours had died),

"Fond things I'll no more tell

To Amabel,

Verse 3

"But leave her to her fate,

And fling across the gate,

'Till the Last Trump, farewell,

O Amabel!'"

1865.

Credits

Written by Thomas Hardy

Words by Thomas Hardy. Historical text published in Wessex Poems and Other Verses (1899); public domain. No claim to a modern recording or arrangement.

Source & text edition

Wessex Poems and Other Verses (1899), “Amabel”

The 1899 published edition is in the public domain in the United States (pre-1931 publication). Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) died more than 96 years ago and his works entered the public domain in life-plus-70 jurisdictions in 1999; entries credited to other hands are held unless their author died more than 70 years ago.

How to read this historical text and its source

Read the source on Wikisource

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Retrieved 2026-10-27. Line spacing and section labels are adapted for reading. The displayed text follows the linked edition. Editorial notes and abstract artwork are by 52lyrics.
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