Thomas Hardy: Collected Lyrics
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Public-domain lyrics

She, to Him, IV

Thomas Hardy

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

Thomas Hardy: Collected Lyrics Text 31 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

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,

Verse 2

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.

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, IV”

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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