Thomas Hardy's "A Broken Appointment" is a melancholy poem in which the speaker gets stood up by the woman that he loves. The speaker complains that the woman's non-arrival breaks a kind of ethical code and that human beings (like her) ought to treat others (like him) with "lovingkindness." If she'd only spent a "little hour" with him despite not loving him back, the speaker argues, it would have added to the overall "store" of goodness in the world. Of course, the reader can decide for themselves whether the speaker has a point—or if this is just a case of sour grapes. The poem was published in Hardy's second collection, Poems of the Past and the Present (1901).
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The Full Text of “A Broken Appointment”
1You did not come,
2And marching Time drew on, and wore me numb,—
3Yet less for loss of your dear presence there
4Than that I thus found lacking in your make
5That high compassion which can overbear
6Reluctance for pure lovingkindness’ sake
7Grieved I, when, as the hope-hour stroked its sum,
8You did not come.
9You love not me,
10And love alone can lend you loyalty;
11—I know and knew it. But, unto the store
12Of human deeds divine in all but name,
13Was it not worth a little hour or more
14To add yet this: Once you, a woman, came
15To soothe a time-torn man; even though it be
16You love not me?
The Full Text of “A Broken Appointment”
1You did not come,
2And marching Time drew on, and wore me numb,—
3Yet less for loss of your dear presence there
4Than that I thus found lacking in your make
5That high compassion which can overbear
6Reluctance for pure lovingkindness’ sake
7Grieved I, when, as the hope-hour stroked its sum,
8You did not come.
9You love not me,
10And love alone can lend you loyalty;
11—I know and knew it. But, unto the store
12Of human deeds divine in all but name,
13Was it not worth a little hour or more
14To add yet this: Once you, a woman, came
15To soothe a time-torn man; even though it be
16You love not me?
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“A Broken Appointment” Summary
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“A Broken Appointment” Themes
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Love, Compassion, and Disappointment
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “A Broken Appointment”
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Lines 1-2
You did not come,
And marching Time drew on, and wore me numb,— -
Lines 3-8
Yet less for loss of your dear presence there
Than that I thus found lacking in your make
That high compassion which can overbear
Reluctance for pure lovingkindness’ sake
Grieved I, when, as the hope-hour stroked its sum,
You did not come. -
Lines 9-11
You love not me,
And love alone can lend you loyalty;
—I know and knew it. -
Lines 11-14
But, unto the store
Of human deeds divine in all but name,
Was it not worth a little hour or more
To add yet this: -
Lines 14-16
Once you, a woman, came
To soothe a time-torn man; even though it be
You love not me?
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“A Broken Appointment” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Apostrophe
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Consonance
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Enjambment
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Repetition
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“A Broken Appointment” Vocabulary
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
- Make
- High compassion
- Overbear
- Lovingkindness
- Hope-hour
- Stroked its sum
- Lend you loyalty
- Unto
- Store
- Human deeds
- Time-torn
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “A Broken Appointment”
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Form
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Meter
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Rhyme Scheme
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“A Broken Appointment” Speaker
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“A Broken Appointment” Setting
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Literary and Historical Context of “A Broken Appointment”
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More “A Broken Appointment” Resources
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External Resources
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Poems of the Past and Present — Read the full collection in which "A Broken Appointment" appeared.
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Hardy and Henniker — Read letters between the poet and Florence Henniker, the woman who might have inspired "A Broken Appointment."
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The Hardy Society — Explore a treasure trove of resources about the poet provided by the Hardy Society.
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The Poem Out Loud — Listen to "A Broken Appointment" read aloud by the famed Welsh poet Dylan Thomas.
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The Heart of Thomas Hardy — Watch a BBC documentary about Hardy's life and work.
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LitCharts on Other Poems by Thomas Hardy
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