 | Collected poems of Thomas Hardy |  |
THE COQUETTE, AND AFTER
(TRIOLETS)
I
For long the cruel wish I knewThat your free heart should ache for me
While mine should bear no ache for you;
For long—the cruel wish!—I knew
How men can feel, and craved to view
My triumph—fated not to be
For long! . . . The cruel wish I knew
That your free heart should ache for me!
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II
At last one pays the penalty—The woman—women always do.
My farce, I found, was tragedy
At last!—One pays the penalty
With interest when one, fancy-free,
Learns love, learns shame. . . . Of sinners two
At last one pays the penalty—
The woman—women always do!
| Collected poems of Thomas Hardy | |