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10.7: Mad Judy

  • Page ID
    3182
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    Thomas Hardy

    When the hamlet hailed a birth
    Judy used to cry:
    When she heard our christening mirth
    She would kneel and sigh.
    She was crazed, we knew, and we
    Humoured her infirmity.

    When the daughters and the sons
    Gathered them to wed,
    And we like-intending ones
    Danced till dawn was red,
    She would rock and mutter, “More
    Comers to this stony shore!”

    When old Headsman[1] Death laid hands
    On a babe or twain[2],
    She would feast, and by her brands[3]
    Sing her songs again.
    What she liked we let her do,
    Judy was insane, we knew.

    — 1901

    Contributors and Attributions


    1. Executioner. ↵
    2. Poetical form of “two.” ↵
    3. Burning pieces of wood. ↵

    10.7: Mad Judy is shared under a CC BY license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by LibreTexts.

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