A Popular Personage At Home
By Thomas Hardy
By Thomas Hardy
By Thomas Hardy
“I live here: ‘Wessex’ is my name,I am a dog known rather well:I guard the house; but how that cameTo be my lot I cannot tell.“With a leap and a heart elate I go,At the end of an hour’s expectancy,To take a walk of a mile or so,With the folk who share the house with me.“Along the path amid the grassI sniff, and find out rarest smellsFor rolling over as I passThe open fields towards the dells.“No doubt I shall always cross this sill,And turn the corner, and stand steady,Gazing back for my mistress tillShe reaches where I have run already.“And that this meadow with its brook,And bulrush, just as it appearsAs I plunge past with hasty look,Will stay the same a thousand years.”Thus “Wessex.” Yet a dubious rayAt times informs his steadfast eye,Just for a trice, as though to say:“Will these things, after all, go by?”
“I live here: ‘Wessex’ is my name,I am a dog known rather well:I guard the house; but how that cameTo be my lot I cannot tell.“With a leap and a heart elate I go,At the end of an hour’s expectancy,To take a walk of a mile or so,With the folk who share the house with me.“Along the path amid the grassI sniff, and find out rarest smellsFor rolling over as I passThe open fields towards the dells.“No doubt I shall always cross this sill,And turn the corner, and stand steady,Gazing back for my mistress tillShe reaches where I have run already.“And that this meadow with its brook,And bulrush, just as it appearsAs I plunge past with hasty look,Will stay the same a thousand years.”Thus “Wessex.” Yet a dubious rayAt times informs his steadfast eye,Just for a trice, as though to say:“Will these things, after all, go by?”
“I live here: ‘Wessex’ is my name,I am a dog known rather well:I guard the house; but how that cameTo be my lot I cannot tell.
“I live here: ‘Wessex’ is my name,
I am a dog known rather well:
I guard the house; but how that came
To be my lot I cannot tell.
“With a leap and a heart elate I go,At the end of an hour’s expectancy,To take a walk of a mile or so,With the folk who share the house with me.
“With a leap and a heart elate I go,
At the end of an hour’s expectancy,
To take a walk of a mile or so,
With the folk who share the house with me.
“Along the path amid the grassI sniff, and find out rarest smellsFor rolling over as I passThe open fields towards the dells.
“Along the path amid the grass
I sniff, and find out rarest smells
For rolling over as I pass
The open fields towards the dells.
“No doubt I shall always cross this sill,And turn the corner, and stand steady,Gazing back for my mistress tillShe reaches where I have run already.
“No doubt I shall always cross this sill,
And turn the corner, and stand steady,
Gazing back for my mistress till
She reaches where I have run already.
“And that this meadow with its brook,And bulrush, just as it appearsAs I plunge past with hasty look,Will stay the same a thousand years.”
“And that this meadow with its brook,
And bulrush, just as it appears
As I plunge past with hasty look,
Will stay the same a thousand years.”
Thus “Wessex.” Yet a dubious rayAt times informs his steadfast eye,Just for a trice, as though to say:“Will these things, after all, go by?”
Thus “Wessex.” Yet a dubious ray
At times informs his steadfast eye,
Just for a trice, as though to say:
“Will these things, after all, go by?”