Thomas Hardy - AfterwardsThomas Hardy - Afterwards
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When the Present has latched its postern behind my tremulous stay,
And the May month flaps its glad green leaves like wings,
Delicate-filmed as new-spun silk, will the neighbours say,
`He was a man who used to notice such things`?
If it be in the dusk when, like an eyelid`s soundless blink,
The dewfall-hawk comes crossing the shades to alight
Upon the wind-warped upland thorn, a gazer may think,
`To him this must have been a familiar sight.`
If I pass during some nocturnal blackness, mothy and warm,
When the hedgehog travels furtively over the lawn,
One may say, `He strove that such innocent creatures should come to no harm,
But he could do little for them; and now he is gone.`
If, when hearing that I have been stilled at last, they stand at the door,
Watching the full-starred heavens that winter sees
Will this thought rise on those who will meet my face no more,
`He was one who had an eye for such mysteries`?
And will any say when my bell of quittance is heard in the gloom
And a crossing breeze cuts a pause in its outrollings,
Till they rise again, as they were a new bell`s boom,
`He hears it not now, but used to notice such things`?
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