Thomas Hardy

The Carrier

‘There’s a seat, I see, still empty?’
Cried the hailer from the road;
‘No, there is not!’ said the carrier,
Quickening his horse and load.

‘ – They say you are in the grave, Jane;
But still you ride with me!’
And he looked towards the vacant space
He had kept beside his knee.

And the passengers murmured: ‘’Tis where his wife
In journeys to and fro
Used always to sit; but nobody does
Since those long years ago.’

Rumble-mumble went the van
Past Sidwell Church and wall,
Till Exon Towers were out of scan,
And night lay over all.