Thomas Hardy

Before Knowledge

When I walked roseless tracks and wide,
Ere dawned your date for meeting me,
O why did you not cry Halloo
Across the stretch between, and say:

‘We move, while years as yet divide,
On closing lines which – though it be
You know me not nor I know you –
Will intersect and join some day!’

Then well I had borne
Each scraping thorn;
But the winters froze,
And grew no rose;
No bridge bestrode
The gap at all;
No shape you showed,
And I heard no call!