The Selfsame Song

Thomas Hardy(1840–1928)

1922

A BIRD bills the selfsame song,With never a fault in its flow,That we listened to here those longLong years ago.

A pleasing marvel is howA strain of such rapturous roteShould have gone on thus till nowUnchanged in a note!

—But it's not the selfsame bird.—No: perished to dust is he. . . .As also are those who heardThat song with me.

From Late Lyrics and Earlier (1922), via the English Wikisource transcription.

Public domainThis poem is in the public domain. You may read it, copy it, recite it and publish it without asking anyone.