Thomas Hardy
The Two Wives
I waited at home all the while they were boating together -
       &nbsp       &nbsp My wife and my near neighbour’s wife:
       &nbsp Till there entered a woman I loved more than life,
And we sat and sat on, and beheld the uprising dark weather,
       &nbsp       &nbsp With a sense that some mischief was rife.

Tidings came that the boat had capsized, and that one of the ladies
       &nbsp       &nbsp Was drowned - which of them was unknown:
       &nbsp And I marvelled - my friend’s wife? - or was it my own
Who had gone in such wise to the land where the sun as the shade is?
       &nbsp       &nbsp - We learnt it was his had so gone.

Then I cried in unrest: “He is free! But no good is releasing
       &nbsp       &nbsp To him as it would be to me!”
       &nbsp “ - But it is,” said the woman I loved, quietly.
“How?” I asked her. “ - Because he has long loved me too without ceasing,
       &nbsp       &nbsp And it’s just the same thing, don’t you see.”