The Complete Poetical Works. Томас Харди

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      To an Unborn Pauper Child

       Table of Contents

      I

      Breathe not, hid Heart: cease silently,

       And though thy birth-hour beckons thee,

       Sleep the long sleep:

       The Doomsters heap

       Travails and teens around us here,

       And Time-wraiths turn our songsingings to fear.

      II

      Hark, how the peoples surge and sigh,

       And laughters fail, and greetings die:

       Hopes dwindle; yea,

       Faiths waste away,

       Affections and enthusiasms numb;

       Thou canst not mend these things if thou dost come.

      III

      Had I the ear of wombèd souls

       Ere their terrestrial chart unrolls,

       And thou wert free

       To cease, or be,

       Then would I tell thee all I know,

       And put it to thee: Wilt thou take Life so?

      IV

      Vain vow! No hint of mine may hence

       To theeward fly: to thy locked sense

       Explain none can

       Life’s pending plan:

       Thou wilt thy ignorant entry make

       Though skies spout fire and blood and nations quake.

      V

      Fain would I, dear, find some shut plot

       Of earth’s wide wold for thee, where not

       One tear, one qualm,

       Should break the calm.

       But I am weak as thou and bare;

       No man can change the common lot to rare.

      VI

      Must come and bide. And such are we—

       Unreasoning, sanguine, visionary—

       That I can hope

       Health, love, friends, scope

       In full for thee; can dream thou’lt find

       Joys seldom yet attained by humankind!