| Thomas Hardy (1840–1928). Wessex Poems and Other Verses. 1898. |
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| 32. The Ivy-Wife |
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| I LONGED to love a full-boughed beech | |
| And be as high as he: | |
| I stretched an arm within his reach, | |
| And signalled unity. | |
| But with his drip he forced a breach, | 5 |
| And tried to poison me. | |
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| I gave the grasp of partnership | |
| To one of other race— | |
| A plane: he barked him strip by strip | |
| From upper bough to base; | 10 |
| And me therewith; for gone my grip, | |
| My arms could not enlace. | |
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| In new affection next I strove | |
| To coll an ash I saw, | |
| And he in trust received my love; | 15 |
| Till with my soft green claw | |
| I cramped and bound him as I wove… | |
| Such was my love: ha-ha! | |
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| By this I gained his strength and height | |
| Without his rivalry. | 20 |
| But in my triumph I lost sight | |
| Of afterhaps. Soon he, | |
| Being bark-bound, flagged, snapped, fell outright, | |
| And in his fall felled me! | |
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