Explore "Paths of Former Time" by Thomas Hardy on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
NO; no; / It must not be so: / They are the ways we do not go.
Still chew / The kine, and moo / In the meadows we used to wander through;
Still purl / The rivulets and curl / Towards the weirs with a musical swirl;
Haymakers / As in former years / Rake rolls into heaps that the pitchfork rears;
Wheels crack / On the turfy track / The waggon pursues with its toppling pack.
"Why then shun- / Since summer's not done- / All this because of the lack of one?"
Had you been / Sharer of that scene / You would not ask while it bites in keen
Why it is so / We can no more go / By the summer paths we used to know!