It was what you bore with you, Woman

It was what you bore with you, Woman,
Not inly were,
That throned you from all else human,
However fair!

It was that strange freshness you carried
Into a soul
Whereon no thought of yours tarried
Two moments at all.

And out from his spirit flew death,
And bale, and ban,
Like the corn-chaff under the breath
of the winnowing-fan.

by Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) , "Without, not within her", from Late Lyrics and Earlier with Many Other Verses, published 1922

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive)

by John Ireland (1879-1962) , "It was what you bore with you, Woman", published 1927 [baritone and piano], from Five Poems by Thomas Hardy, no. 3.

Added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.

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