A Wife Waits

 Will's at the dance in the Club-room below,
    Where the tall liquor-cups foam;
 I on the pavement up here by the Bow,
    Wait, wait, to steady him home.

 Will and his partner are treading a tune,
    Loving companions they be;
 Willy, before we were married in June,
    Said he loved no one but me;

 Said he would let his old pleasures all go
    Ever to live with his Dear.
 Will's at the dance in the Club-room below,
    Shivering I wait for him here.

by Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) , "A Wife Waits", from Time's Laughingstocks and Other Verses, in At Casterbridge Fair, no. 6, published 1909

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

by Andrew Downes (1950-) , "A Wife Waits", op. 1 no. 3 (1973), from Casterbridge Fair, no. 3.
by Frederic Goossen (1927-) , "A Wife Waits" [mezzo-soprano, baritone, and piano], from At Casterbridge Fair, no. 6.
by Alfred Matthew Hale (1875-1960) , "A Wife Waits", op. 27 no. 6 [voice and piano], from At Casterbridge Fair, no. 6.
by Betty Roe (1930-) , "A Wife Waits", published 2005 [male and female solo voices and piano], from Three Hardy Conversations, no. 1.
by Irwin Spector (1916-) , "A Wife Waits" [mezzo-soprano, piano]

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