Explore "At a Watering-Place" by Thomas Hardy on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
THEY sit and smoke on the esplanade, / The man and his friend, and regard the bay / Where the far chalk cliffs, to the left displayed, / Smile sallowly in the decline of day. / And saunterers pass with laugh and jest- / A handsome couple among the rest.
"That smart proud pair," says the man to his friend, / "Are to marry next week. How little he thinks / That dozens of days and nights on end / I have stroked her neck, unhooked the links / Of her sleeve to get at her upper arm. / Well, bliss is in ignorance: what's the harm! "