 | Collected poems of Thomas Hardy |  |
ON AN INVITATION TO THE UNITED STATES
I
My ardours for emprize nigh lostSince Life has bared its bones to me,
I shrink to seek a modern coast
Whose riper times have yet to be;
Where the new regions claim them free
From that long drip of human tears
Which peoples old in tragedy
Have left upon the centuried years.
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II
For, wonning in these ancient lands,Enchased and lettered as a tomb,
And scored with prints of perished hands,
And chronicled with dates of doom,
Though my own Being bear no bloom
I trace the lives such scenes enshrine,
Give past exemplars present room,
And their experience count as mine.
| Collected poems of Thomas Hardy | |