A Military Appointment

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Title:     A Military Appointment
Author: Thomas Hardy [More Titles by Hardy]

(SCHERZANDO)

"So back you have come from the town, Nan, dear!
And have you seen him there, or near -
That soldier of mine -
Who long since promised to meet me here?"

"--O yes, Nell: from the town I come,
And have seen your lover on sick-leave home -
That soldier of yours -
Who swore to meet you, or Strike-him-dumb;

"But has kept himself of late away;
Yet,--in short, he's coming, I heard him say -
That lover of yours -
To this very spot on this very day."

"--Then I'll wait, I'll wait, through wet or dry!
I'll give him a goblet brimming high -
This lover of mine -
And not of complaint one word or sigh!"

"--Nell, him I have chanced so much to see,
That--he has grown the lover of me! -
That lover of yours -
And it's here our meeting is planned to be."

-THE END-
Thomas Hardy's poem: A Military Appointment

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