At An Inn
Thomas Hardy
1840 to 1928
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When we as strangers sought
Their catering care,
Veiled smiles bespoke their thought
Of what we were.
They warmed as they opined
Us more friends—
That we had all resigned
For love's dear ends.
And that swift sympathy
With love
Which quicks the world—maybe
The spheres above,
Made them our ministers,
Moved them to say,
"Ah, God, that bliss like theirs
Would our day!"
And we were left alone
As Love's own pair;
Yet never the love-light
Between us there!
But that which chilled breath
Of afternoon,
And palsied unto death
The pane-fly's tune.
The kiss their zeal foretold,
And now deemed come,
Came not: within his
Love lingered numb.
Why cast he on port
A bloom not ours?
Why shaped for his sport
In after-hours?
As we we were not
That day afar,
And we seem not what
We aching are.
severing sea and land,
O laws of men,
Ere death, once let us stand
As we then!