Read "Wives in the Sere" by Thomas Hardy online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
I. NEVER a careworn wife but shows, / If a joy suffuse her, / Something beautiful to those / Patient to peruse her, / Some one charm the world unknows / Precious to a muser, / Haply what, ere years were foes, / Moved her mate to choose her.
II. But, be it a hint of rose / That an instant hues her, / Or some early light or pose / Wherewith thought renews her- / Seen by him at full, ere woes / Practised to abuse her- / Sparely comes it, swiftly goes, / Time again subdues her.