Explore "The Young Churchwarden" by Thomas Hardy on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
WHEN he lit the candles there, / And the light fell on his hand, / And it trembled as he scanned / Her and me, his vanquished air / Hinted that his dream was done, / And I saw he had begun / To understand.
When Love's viol was unstrung, / Sore I wished the hand that shook / Had been mine that shared her book / While that evening hymn was sung, / His the victor's, as he lit / Candles where he had bidden us sit / With vanquished look.
Now her dust lies listless there, / His afar from tending hand, / What avails the victory scanned? / Does he smile from upper air: / "Ah, my friend, your dream is done; / And 'tis _you_ who have begun / To understand!