The Orphaned Old Maid by Thomas Hardy — Read

I WANTED to marry, but father said, "No- / 'Tis weakness in women to give themselves so; / If you care for your freedom you'll listen to me, / Make a spouse in your pocket, and let the men be."

I spake on't again and again: father cried, / "Why-if you go husbanding, where shall I bide? / For never a home's for me elsewhere than here! " / And I yielded; for father had ever been dear.

But now father's gone, and I feel growing old, / And I'm lonely and poor in this house on the wold, / And my sweetheart that was found a partner elsewhere, / And nobody flings me a thought or a care.