Thomas Hardy

The Lament of the Looking-Glass

Words from the mirror softly pass
To the curtains with a sigh:
‘Why should I trouble again to glass
These smileless things hard by,
Since she I pleasured once, alas,
Is now no longer nigh!

‘I’ve imaged shadows of coursing cloud,
And of the plying limb
On the pensive pine when the air is loud
With its aerial hymn;
But never do they make me proud
To catch them within my rim!

‘I flash back phantoms of the night
That sometimes flit by me,
I echo roses red and white –
The loveliest blooms that be –
But now I never hold to sight
So sweet a flower as she.’