Read "The Telegram" by Thomas Hardy online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
"O HE'S suffering-maybe dying-and I not there to aid, / And smooth his bed and whisper to him! Can I nohow go? / Only the nurse's brief twelve words thus hurriedly conveyed, / As by stealth, to let me know.
"He was the best and brightest! -candour shone upon his brow, / And I shall never meet again a soldier such as he, / And I loved him ere I knew it, and perhaps he's sinking now, / Far, far removed from me!"