Explore "Side by Side" by Thomas Hardy on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
SO there sat they, / The estranged two, / Thrust in one pew / By chance that day; / Placed so, breath-nigh, / Each comer unwitting / Who was to be sitting / In touch close by.
Thus side by side / Blindly alighted, / They seemed united / As groom and bride, / Who'd not communed / For many years- / Lives from twain spheres / With hearts distuned.
Her fringes brushed / His garment's hem / As the harmonies rushed / Through each of them: / Her lips could be heard / In the creed and psalms, / And their fingers neared / At the giving of alms.
And women and men, / The matins ended, / By looks commended / Them, joined again. / Quickly said she, / "Don't undeceive them- / Better thus leave them: " / "Quite so," said he.
Slight words! -the last / Between them said, / Those two, once wed, / Who had not stood fast. / Diverse their ways / From the western door, / To meet no more / In their span of days.