(an Incident of Froom Valley) <br /> <br /> "THY husband--poor, poor Heart!--is dead-- <br /> Dead, out by Moreford Rise; <br /> A bull escaped the barton-shed, <br /> Gored him, and there he lies!" <br /> <br /> --"Ha, ha--go away! 'Tis a tale, methink, <br /> Thou joker Kit!" laughed she. <br /> "I've known thee many a year, Kit Twink, <br /> And ever hast thou fooled me!" <br /> <br /> --"But, Mistress Damon--I can swear <br /> Thy goodman John is dead! <br /> And soon th'lt hear their feet who bear <br /> His body to his bed." <br /> <br /> So unwontedly sad was the merry man's face-- <br /> That face which had long deceived-- <br /> That she gazed and gazed; and then could trace <br /> The truth there; and she believed. <br /> <br /> She laid a hand on the dresser-ledge, <br /> And scanned far Egdon-side; <br /> And stood; and you heard the wind-swept sedge <br /> And the rippling Froom; till she cried: <br /> <br /> "O my chamber's untidied, unmade my bed, <br /> Though the day has begun to wear! <br /> 'What a slovenly hussif!' it will be said, <br /> When they all go up my stair!" <br /> <br /> She disappeared; and the joker stood <br /> Depressed by his neighbor's doom, <br /> And amazed that a wife struck to widowhood <br /> Thought first of her unkempt room. <br /> <br /> But a fortnight thence she could take no food, <br /> And she pined in a slow decay; <br /> While Kit soon lost his mournful mood <br /> And laughed in his ancient way.<br /><br />Thomas Hardy<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-slow-nature/
