When Thomas Hardy writes about love, things are never straightforward. The crunch here is not, as so often, death and remorse, but a somewhat deflating acknowledgment of emotional reality!
THE LAST LEAF
‘The leaves throng thick above: -
Well, I’ll come back, dear Love,
When they all are down!’
~
She watched that August tree,
(None now scorned summer as she),
Till it broidered it brown.
~
And then October came blowing,
And the leaves showed signs they were going,
And she saw up through them.
~
O how she counted them then!
- November left her but ten,
And started to strew them.
~
‘Ah, when they all are gone,
And the skeleton-time comes on,
Whom shall I see!’
~
- When the fifteenth spread its sky
That month, her upturned eye
Could count but three.
~
And at the close of the week
A flush flapped over her cheek:
The last one fell.
~
But – he did not come. And, at length,
Her hope of him lost all strength,
And it was as a knell. . . .
~
When he did come again,
Years later, a husband then,
Heavy somewhat,
~
With a smile she reminded him:
And he cried: ‘Ah, that vow of our whim! –
Which I forgot,
~
‘As one does! –And was that the tree?
So it was! – Dear me, dear me:
Yes: I forgot.’
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article