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Home  »  Poetica Erotica  »  The Dark-eyed Gentleman

T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22.

The Dark-eyed Gentleman

By Thomas Hardy (1840–1928)
 
I.
I PITCHED my day’s leazings 1 in Crimmercrock Lane,
To tie up my garter and jog on again,
When a dear dark-eyed gentleman passed there and said,
In a way that made all o’ me colour rose-red,
                “What do I see—        5
                O pretty knee!”
And he came and he tied up my garter for me.
 
II.
’Twixt sunset and moonrise it was, I can mind:
Ah, ’tis easy to lose what we nevermore find!—
Of the dear stranger’s home, of his name, I knew nought,        10
But I soon knew his nature and all that it brought.
                Then bitterly
                Sobbed I that he
Should ever have tied up my garter for me!
 
III.
Yet now I’ve beside me a fine lissom lad,
        15
And my slip’s nigh forgot, and my days are not sad;
My own dearest joy is he, comrade, and friend,
He it is who safe-guards me, on him I depend;
                No sorrow brings he,
                And thankful I be        20
That his daddy once tied up my garter for me!
 
Note 1. Bundle of gleaned corn. [back]