Read "The Opportunity" by Thomas Hardy online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
(FOR H. P.)
FORTY springs back, I recall, / We met at this phase of the Maytime: / We might have clung close through all, / But we parted when died that daytime.
We parted with smallest regret; / Perhaps should have cared but slightly, / Just then, if we never had met: / Strange, strange that we lived so lightly!
Had we mused a little space / At that critical date in the Maytime, / One life had been ours, one place, / Perhaps, till our long cold daytime.
-This is a bitter thing / For thee, O man: what ails it? / The tide of chance may bring / Its offer; but nought avails it!