Read "The Casual Acquaintance" by Thomas Hardy online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
WHILE he was here in breath and bone, / To speak to and to see, / Would I had known-more clearly known- / What that man did for me
When the wind scraped a minor lay, / And the spent west from white / To gray turned tiredly, and from gray / To broadest bands of night!
But I saw not, and he saw not / What shining life-tides flowed / To me-ward from his casual jot / Of service on that road.
He would have said: "Twas nothing new; / We all do what we can; / 'Twas only what one man would do / For any other man."
Now that I gauge his goodliness / He's slipped from human eyes; / And when he passed there's none can guess, / Or point out where he lies.