Departure
Platform
by Thomas Hardy
|
| We kissed at the barrier ; and passing
through |
| She left me, and moment by moment got |
| Smaller and smaller, until to my view |
She was but a spot ;
|
| A wee white spot of muslin fluff |
| That down the diminishing platform bore |
| Through hustling crowds of gentle and
rough |
To the carriage door.
|
| Under the lamplight’s fitful glowers, |
| Behind dark groups from far and near, |
| Whose interests were apart from ours, |
She would disappear,
|
| Then show again, till I ceased to see |
| That flexible form, that nebulous white
; |
| And she who was more than my life to me |
Had vanished quite.
|
| We have penned new plans since that
fair fond day, |
| And in season she will appear again— |
| Perhaps in the same soft white array— |
But never as then !
|
| —‘And why, young man, must eternally
fly |
| A joy you’ll repeat, if you love her
well ?’ |
| —O friend, nought happens twice thus ;
why, |
I cannot tell !
|
| Thomas Hardy
| Classic Poems |
| |
|
[ Afterwards ] [ At Castle Boterel ] [ The Darkling Thrush ] [ On the Departure Platform ] [ The Robin ] [ The Dead Man Walking ] |
