Home ⇒ 📌Thomas Hardy ⇒ The Coquette, and After (Triolets)
The Coquette, and After (Triolets)
I
For long the cruel wish I knew
That your free heart should ache for me
While mine should bear no ache for you;
For, long the cruel wish! I knew
How men can feel, and craved to view
My triumph fated not to be
For long! . . . The cruel wish I knew
That your free heart should ache for me!
II
At last one pays the penalty –
The woman women always do.
My farce, I found, was tragedy
At last! One pays the penalty
With interest when one, fancy-free,
Learns love, learns shame. . . Of sinners two
At last ONE pays the penalty –
The woman women always do!
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