A Woman Driving

How she held up the horses' heads,

Firm-lipped, with steady rein,

Down that grim steep the coastguard treads,

Till all was safe again!

With form erect and keen contour

She passed against the sea,

And, dipping into the chine's obscure,

Was seen no more by me.

To others she appeared anew

At times of dusky light,

But always, so they told, withdrew

From close and curious sight.

Some said her silent wheels would roll

Rutless on softest loam,

And even that her steeds' footfall

Sank not upon the foam.

Where drives she now? It may be where

No mortal horses are,

But in a chariot of the air

Towards some radiant star.

A quote from a Hardy novel

“If men only knew the staleness of the freshest of us! that nine times out of ten the "first love" they think they are winning from a woman is but the hulk of an old wrecked affection, fitted with new sails and re-used.” 

( Desperate Remedies) 

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