Would that I lay there
And she were housed here!
Or better, together
Were folded away there
Exposed to one weather
We both, – who would stray there
When sunny the day there,
Or evening was clear
At the prime of the year.
Soon will be growing
Green blades from her mound,
And daisies be showing
Like stars on the ground,
Till she form part of them –
Ay – the sweet heart of them,
Loved beyond measure
With a child’s pleasure
All her life’s round.
–Thomas Hardy, from “Rain on a Grave”
“[Hardy’s] brother Henry and sister Kate, and his second wife Florence, had supposed that [Hardy] would be buried in Stinsford, close to his parents, and beneath the tombstone he had himself designed for his first wife, Emma, leaving space for his own name to be added.” The Oxford University Press blog reveals the reasons behind poet Thomas Hardy’s two funerals.
“[Hardy’s] brother Henry and sister Kate, and his second wife Florence, had supposed that [Hardy] would be buried in Stinsford, close to his parents, and beneath the tombstone he had himself designed for his first wife, Emma, leaving space for his own name to be added.” The Oxford University Press blog reveals the reasons behind poet Thomas Hardy’s two funerals.