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.

Note: A "bow" is a curved corner by a cross-street.

Text Authorship:

• by Thomas Hardy (1840 - 1928), "A Wife Waits", appears in Time's Laughingstocks and Other Verses, in At Casterbridge Fair, no. 6, first published 1909 [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]

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 - 2023), "A Wife Waits", op. 1 no. 3 (1973), from Casterbridge Fair, no. 3 [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Frederic Goossen (b. 1927), "A wife waits" [ duet for mezzo-soprano and baritone with piano ], from At Casterbridge Fair, no. 6 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Alfred Matthew Hale (1875 - 1960), "A Wife Waits", op. 27 no. 6 [ voice and piano ], from At Casterbridge Fair, no. 6 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Betty Roe (b. 1930), "A Wife Waits", published 2005 [ solo male voices and female voices and piano ], from Three Hardy Conversations, no. 1 [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Irwin Spector (b. 1916), "A Wife Waits" [ mezzo-soprano, piano ] [sung text not yet checked]

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 12
Word count: 84