HARDY, Thomas (1840-1928). Autograph poetic manuscript signed ("Thomas Hardy"), a fair copy of "The Departure", Southampton Docks, October 1899.

One page, 8vo, with single correction on line two, comprising 14 lines in total, old folds. Matted and framed with a photographic portrait of Hardy by W.D. Downey, 1894.

This fair copy represents the poem in its original version as published in the Daily Chronicle, 25 October 1899, with the last stanza reading: "Wives, sisters, parents, wave white hands and smile, As if they knew not that they weep the while." The poem was later revised and collected under its final title "Embarcation" in Poems of the Past and the Present (1902).