Four Footprints by Thomas Hardy — Read

HERE are the tracks upon the sand / Where stood last evening she and I- / Pressed heart to heart and hand to hand; / The morning sun has baked them dry.

I kissed her wet face-wet with rain, / For arid grief had burnt up tears, / While reached us as in sleeping pain / The distant gurgling of the weirs.

"I have married him-yes; feel that ring; / 'Tis a week ago that he put it on. / A dutiful daughter does this thing, / And resignation succeeds anon!

"But that I body and soul was yours / Ere he'd possession, he'll never know. / He's a confident man. ‘The husband scores,' / He says, ‘in the long run'. Now, Dear, go!"

I went. And to-day I pass the spot; / It is only a smart the more to endure; / And she whom I held is as though she were not, / For they have resumed their honeymoon tour.