Explore "The Dark-Eyed Gentleman" by Thomas Hardy on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
I. I PITCHED my day's leazings in Crimmercrock Lane, / To tie up my garter and jog on again, / When a dear dark-eyed gentleman passed there and said, / In a way that made all o' me colour rose-red, / "What do I see- / O pretty knee! " / And he came and he tied up my garter for me.
II. 'Twixt sunset and moonrise it was, I can mind: / Ah, 'tis easy to lose what we nevermore find! - / Of the dear stranger's home, of his name, I knew nought, / But I soon knew his nature and all that it brought. / Then bitterly / Sobbed I that he / Should ever have tied up my garter for me!
III. Yet now I've beside me a fine lissom lad, / And my slip's nigh forgot, and my days are not sad; / My own dearest joy is he, comrade, and friend, / He it is who safe-guards me, on him I depend; / No sorrow brings he, / And thankful I be / That his daddy once tied up my garter for me!