Read "The Ivy-Wife" by Thomas Hardy online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
I LONGED to love a full-boughed beech / And be as high as he: / I stretched an arm within his reach, / And signalled unity. / But with his drip he forced a breach, / And tried to poison me.
I gave the grasp of partnership / To one of other race- / A plane: he barked him strip by strip / From upper bough to base; / And me therewith; for gone my grip, / My arms could not enlace.
In new affection next I strove / To coll an ash I saw, / And he in trust received my love; / Till with my soft green claw / I cramped and bound him as I wove. / Such was my love: ha-ha!
By this I gained his strength and height / Without his rivalry. / But in my triumph I lost sight / Of afterhaps. Soon he, / Being bark-bound, flagged, snapped, fell outright, / And in his fall felled me!