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The Sailor's Mother

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"O whence do you come,     Figure in the night-fog that chills me numb?"     "I come to you across from my house up there,     And I don't mind the brine-mist clinging to me     That blows from the quay,     For I heard him in my chamber, and thought you unaware."     "But what did you hear,     That brought you blindly knocking in this middle-watch so drear?"     "My sailor son's voice as 'twere calling at your door,     And I don't mind my bare feet clammy on the stones,     And the blight to my bones,     For he only knows of THIS house I lived in before."     "Nobody's nigh,     Woman like a skeleton, with socket-sunk eye."     "Ah nobody's nigh! And my life is drearisome,     And this is the old home we loved in many a day     Before he went away;     And the salt fog mops me. And nobody's come!"     From "To Please his Wife."

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""O whence do you come,..."

"The Sailor's Mother" is a quintessential example of Thomas Hardy's signature style... ### Why We Love This Line At Linespedia, we believe that poetry is the ultimate sanctuary for the soul...

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