Thomas Hardy

I Looked Back

I looked back as I left the house,
And, past the chimneys and neighbour tree,
The moon upsidled through the boughs: –
I thought: ‘I shall a last time see
This picture; when will that time be?’

I paused amid the laugh-loud feast,
And selfward said: ‘I am sitting where,
Some night, when ancient songs have ceased,
“Now is the last time I shall share
Such cheer,” will be the thought I bear.’

An eye-sweep back at a look-out corner
Upon a hill, as forenight wore,
Stirred me to think: ‘Ought I to warn her
That, though I come here times three-score,
One day ’twill be I come no more?’

Anon I reasoned there had been,
Ere quite forsaken was each spot,
Bygones whereon I’d lastly seen
That house, that feast, that maid forgot;
But when? – Ah, I remembered not!