Read "To an Impersonator of Rosalind" by Thomas Hardy online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
DID he who drew her in the years ago- / Till now conceived creator of her grace- / With telescopic sight high natures know, / Discern remote in Time's untravelled space
Your soft sweet mien, your gestures, as do we, / And with a copyist's hand but set them down, / Glowing yet more to dream our ecstasy / When his Original should be forthshown?
For, kindled by that animated eye, / Whereto all fairnesses about thee brim, / And by thy tender tones, what wight can fly / The wild conviction welling up in him
That he at length beholds woo, parley, plead, / The "very, very Rosalind" indeed!