Explore "Over the Coffin" by Thomas Hardy on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
THEY stand confronting, the coffin between, / His wife of old, and his wife of late, / And the dead man whose they both had been / Seems listening aloof, as to things past date. / -"I have called," says the first. "Do you marvel or not? " / "In truth," says the second, "I do-somewhat."
"Well, there was a word to be said by me! . / I divorced that man because of you- / It seemed I must do it, boundenly; / But now I am older, and tell you true, / For life is little, and dead lies he; / I would I had let alone you two! / And both of us, scorning parochial ways, / Had lived like the wives in the patriarchs' days. "