Explore "The Last Signal" by Thomas Hardy on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
(_Oct._ 11, 1886) / A MEMORY OF WILLIAM BARNES
SILENTLY I footed by an uphill road / That led from my abode to a spot yew-boughed; / Yellowly the sun sloped low down to westward, / And dark was the east with cloud.
Then, amid the shadow of that livid sad east, / Where the light was least, and a gate stood wide, / Something flashed the fire of the sun that was facing it, / Like a brief blaze on that side.
Looking hard and harder I knew what it meant- / The sudden shine sent from the livid east scene; / It meant the west mirrored by the coffin of my friend there, / Turning to the road from his green,
To take his last journey forth-he who in his prime / Trudged so many a time from that gate athwart the land! / Thus a farewell to me he signalled on his grave-way, / As with a wave of his hand.