Read "I was not He" by Thomas Hardy online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
(SONG)
I WAS not he-the man / Who used to pilgrim to your gate, / At whose smart step you grew elate, / And rosed, as maidens can, / For a brief span.
It was not I who sang / Beside the keys you touched so true / With note-bent eyes, as if with you / It counted not whence sprang / The voice that rang . . .
Yet though my destiny / It was to miss your early sweet, / You still, when turned to you my feet, / Had sweet enough to be / A prize for me!