Explore "Looking at a Picture on an Anniversary" by Thomas Hardy on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
BUT don't you know it, my dear, / Don't you know it, / That this day of the year / (What rainbow-rays embow it! ) / We met, strangers confessed, / But parted-blest?
Though at this query, my dear, / There in your frame / Unmoved you still appear, / You must be thinking the same, / But keep that look demure / Just to allure.
And now at length a trace / I surely vision / Upon that wistful face / Of old-time recognition, / Smiling forth, "Yes, as you say, / It is the day."
For this one phase of you / Now left on earth / This great date must endue / With pulsings of rebirth? - / I see them vitalize / Those two deep eyes!
But if this face I con / Does not declare / Consciousness living on / Still in it, little I care / To live myself, my dear, / Lone-labouring here!