Explore "Last Words to a Dumb Friend" by Thomas Hardy on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
PET was never mourned as you, / Purrer of the spotless hue, / Plumy tail, and wistful gaze / While you humoured our queer ways, / Or outshrilled your morning call / Up the stairs and through the hall- / Foot suspended in its fall- / While, expectant, you would stand / Arched, to meet the stroking hand; / Till your way you chose to wend / Yonder, to your tragic end.
Never another pet for me! / Let your place all vacant be; / Better blankness day by day / Than companion torn away. / Better bid his memory fade, / Better blot each mark he made, / Selfishly escape distress / By contrived forgetfulness, / Than preserve his prints to make / Every morn and eve an ache.