Poem by Thomas Hardy

Vagg Hollow

‘What do you see in Vagg Hollow,
Little boy, when you go
In the morning at five on your lonely drive?’
‘ – I see men’s souls, who follow
Till we’ve passed where the road lies low,
When they vanish at our creaking!

‘They are like white faces speaking
Beside and behind the waggon –
One just as father’s was when here.
The waggoner drinks from his flagon,
(Or he’d flinch when the Hollow is near)
But he does not give me any.

‘Sometimes the faces are many;
But I walk along by the horses,
He asleep on the straw as we jog;
And I hear the loud water-courses,
And the drops from the trees in the fog,
And watch till the day is breaking,

‘And the wind out by Tintinhull waking;
I hear in it father’s call
As he called when I saw him dying,
And he sat by the fire last Fall,
And mother stood by sighing;
But I’m not afraid at all!’

1. At the Word ‘Farewell’
2. The Three Tall Men
3. The Dead Bastard
4. The Supplanter
5. Evening Shadows

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