At nine in the morning there passed a church,
At ten there passed me by the sea,
At twelve a town of smoke and smirch,
At two a forest of oak and birch,
And then, on a platform, she:
A radiant stranger, who saw not me.
I queried, 'Get out to her do I dare?'
But I kept my seat in my search for a plea,
And the wheels moved on. O could it but be
That I had alighted there!
More verses by Thomas Hardy
- A Woman's Fancy
- At A Bridal
- Leipzig
- Cardinal Bembo's Epitaph On Raphael
- The Bedridden Peasant To An Unknown God