Jerome, those are two perfect examples of Hardy knowing exactly what he is talking about, sheep and sheep markets. The great Australian AD Hope lived to Hardy's age, 89, and wrote brilliantly in his eighties. A great poem from his last decade is Teaser Rams, and I'm sure that in the back of his mind he had these poems by Hardy.

"We are going, gentlemen."

I learned Hardy at my father's knee, later at RP Warren's shoulder. This was my dad's favorite, which isn't in Bob Mezey's Selected:

Ah, Are You Digging on My Grave?
"Ah, are you digging on my grave
My loved one? -- planting rue?"
-- "No, yesterday he went to wed
One of the brightest wealth has bred.
'It cannot hurt her now,' he said,
'That I should not be true.'"

"Then who is digging on my grave?
My nearest dearest kin?"
-- "Ah, no; they sit and think, 'What use!
What good will planting flowers produce?
No tendance of her mound can loose
Her spirit from Death's gin.' "


"But some one digs upon my grave?
My enemy? -- prodding sly?"
-- "Nay: when she heard you had passed the Gate
That shuts on all flesh soon or late,
She thought you no more worth her hate,
And cares not where you lie."


"Then, who is digging on my grave?
Say -- since I have not guessed!"
-- "O it is I, my mistress dear,
Your little dog, who still lives near,
And much I hope my movements here
Have not disturbed your rest?"


"Ah yes! You dig upon my grave . . .
Why flashed it not on me
That one true heart was left behind!
What feeling do we ever find
To equal among human kind
A dog's fidelity!"


"Mistress, I dug upon your grave
To bury a bone, in case
I should be hungry near this spot
When passing on my daily trot.
I am sorry, but I quite forgot
It was your resting-place."

Returning to the subject at hand...
 

Caleb:


Regarding "In Church", when tetrameter has so many substitutions but four beats in each and every line, I think accentual. If we ignore the anacrusis and collapse some of the "nuts 'n bolts" conjunctions, semisyllables and elisions we could hammer much of it into something roughly iambic. This line causes me to give up the effort, though:


HTH,

Colin