Read "At the Wicket-Gate" by Thomas Hardy online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
THERE floated the sounds of church-chiming, / But no one was nigh, / Till there came, as a break in the loneness, / Her father, she, I. / And we slowly moved on to the wicket, / And downlooking stood, / Till anon people passed, and amid them / We parted for good.
Greater, wiser, may part there than we three / Who parted there then, / But never will Fates colder-featured / Hold sway there again. / Of the churchgoers through the still meadows / No single one knew / What a play was played under their eyes there / As thence we withdrew.