The Echo Elf Answers

By Thomas Hardy 1840–1928 Thomas Hardy

How much shall I love her?

For life, or not long?

“Not long.”

Alas! When forget her?

In years, or by June?

“By June.”

And whom woo I after?

No one, or a throng?

“A throng.”

Of these shall I wed one

Long hence, or quite soon?

“Quite soon.”

And which will my bride be?

The right or the wrong?

“The wrong.”

And my remedy – what kind?

Wealth-wove, or earth-hewn?

“Earth-hewn.”

Biography

One of the most renowned poets and novelists in English literary history, Thomas Hardy was born in 1840 in the English village of Higher Bockhampton in the county of Dorset. He died in 1928 at Max Gate, a house he built for himself and his first wife, Emma Lavinia Gifford, in Dorchester, a few miles from his birthplace. Hardy’s youth was influenced by the musicality of his father, a stonemason and fiddler, and his mother, Jemima . . .

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