Meme: Teaser Tuesdays

TEASER TUESDAYS asks you to:
- Grab your current read
- Open to a random page
- Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
- BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
- Share the title and author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My teaser is a little different, as I am using the first stanza from a poem from "Thomas Hardy: The Complete Poems":

"I have a Love I love too well
Where Dunkery frowns on Exon Moor;
I have a Love I love too well,
To whom, ere she was mine,
'Such is my love for you,' I said,
'That you shall have to hood your head
A silken kerchief crimson-red,
Wove of the finest of the fine.'"

My teaser was taken from Poem No. 331, entitled The Sacrilege, A Ballad Tragedy, (Circa 182-), included in Thomas Hardy: The Complete Poems, edited by James Gibson, Palgrave, 2001.  This particular 'teaser' selection is from one of his poems in his collection entitled Satires of Circumstance, and was published (in 1914) shortly after the death of his wife, Emma.
 
For those interested, the entire poem can be found here.

I was simply gobsmacked when I finished reading this poem through the first time, and I'll bet you are too!  Whew!  What a tale!  Vintage Hardy; that's all I can say.  I also very much recommend this variorum collection of Hardy's poetry.  It is some of the best poetry of the Victorian period, and rivals that of Christina Rossetti, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and Alfred Lord Tennyson.  He writes ballads, elegies, folk lore, and much is quite modern. Hardy tells stories with his poetry--Good stories!  If you like poetry, this complete collection belongs in your library.  Enjoy!

[The rules for Teaser Tuesdays comes from MizB at Should Be Reading]