Thomas Hardy: Collected Lyrics
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Public-domain lyrics

She, to Him, II

Thomas Hardy

“She, to Him, II” as printed in Wessex Poems and Other Verses (1899).

Thomas Hardy: Collected Lyrics Text 29 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

PERHAPS, long hence, when I have passed away,

Some other's feature, accent, thought like mine.

Will carry you back to what I used to say,

And bring some memory of your love's decline.

Then you may pause awhile and think, "Poor jade!"

And yield a sigh to me—as gift benign,

Not as the tittle of a debt unpaid

To one who could to you her all resign—

Verse 2

And thus reflecting, you will never see

That your thin thought, in two small words conveyed,

Was no such fleeting phantom-thought to me,

But the Whole Life wherein my part was played;

And you amid its fitful masquerade

A Thought—as I in yours but seem to be.

1866.

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), “She, to Him, II”

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

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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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