Read "The Faded Face" by Thomas Hardy online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
HOW was this I did not see / Such a look as here was shown / Ere its womanhood had blown / Past its first felicity? - / That I did not know you young, / Faded Face, / Know you young!
Why did Time so ill bestead / That I heard no voice of yours / Hail from out the curved contours / Of those lips when rosy red; / Weeted not the songs they sung, / Faded Face, / Songs they sung!
By these blanchings, blooms of old, / And the relics of your voice- / Leavings rare of rich and choice / From your early tone and mould- / Let me mourn,-aye, sorrow-wrung, / Faded Face, / Sorrow-wrung!