HARDY FORUM ARCHIVE  H01029  3/4/01   "TOTTERING TOMBSTONE POEM QUESTION"
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From: Martin Ray <enl090@abdn.ac.uk>
Sender: enl090@abdn.ac.uk
Subject: Re: RE: tombstone

Hello everybody:

A plea for help in identifying a Hardy poem, if I may call 
on the collective generosity once more:

Can anyone think which poem has a 'tottering tombstone' in 
it, please (that's not a direct quotation)?

Many thanks, and sorry to trouble you.

All the best
Martin
-------
Dr Martin Ray
Department of English
University of Aberdeen
Aberdeen
Scotland, UK
m.ray@abdn.ac.uk

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From: "Jon H." <thenostromo@hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: RE: tombstone
Date: Sun, 04 Mar 2001 06:56:05 -0800

This poem has the word "tottering" and the expression "saw her in a tomb of 
tomes." It would seem that this is what you are looking for.

MEMORY AND I

O MEMORY, where is now my youth,
Who used to say that life was truth?"
"I saw him in a crumbled cot
Beneath a tottering tree ;
That he as phantom lingers there
Is only known to me."
"O Memory, where is now my joy,
Who lived with me in sweet employ?"
"I saw him in gaunt gardens lone,
Where laughter used to be ;
That he as phantom wanders there
Is known to none but me"
"O Memory, where is now my hope,
Who charged with deeds my skill and scope?"
"I saw her in a tomb of tomes,
Where dreams are wont to be ;
That she as spectre haunteth there
Is only known to me."
"O Memory, where is now my faith.
On time a champion, now a wraith?"
"I saw her in a ravaged aisle,
bowed down on bended knee ;
That her poor ghost outflickers there
Is known to none but me."
"O Memory, where is now my love
That rayed me as a god above?"
"I saw her in an ageing shape
Where beauty used to be ;
That her fond phantom lingers there
Is only known to me."
~Thomas Hardy

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Date: Sun, 4 Mar 2001 07:50:34 -0800
From: Betty  Cortus <hardycor@owl.csusm.edu>
Subject: Re: RE: tombstone


Martin, I wonder if it might be  "A Night of Questionings."  Although it's
a tower that's doing the tottering the poem is about dead people. It begins:

On the eve of All-Souls' Day
I heard the dead men say
Who lie by the tottering tower
To the dark and doubling wind
At the midnight's turning hour,
When other speech has thinned:
  'What of the world now?
. . .

Betty Cortus
hardycor@mailhost2.csusm.edu

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