Thomas Hardy
The Old Gown
I have seen her in gowns the brightest,
       &nbsp Of azure, green, and red,
And in the simplest, whitest,
       &nbsp Muslined from heel to head;
I have watched her walking, riding,
       &nbsp Shade-flecked by a leafy tree,
Or in fixed thought abiding
       &nbsp By the foam-fingered sea.

In woodlands I have known her,
       &nbsp When boughs were mourning loud,
In the rain-reek she has shown her
       &nbsp Wild-haired and watery-browed.
And once or twice she has cast me
       &nbsp As she pomped along the street
Court-clad, ere quite she had passed me,
       &nbsp A glance from her chariot-seat.

But in my memoried passion
       &nbsp For evermore stands she
In the gown of fading fashion
       &nbsp She wore that night when we,
Doomed long to part, assembled
       &nbsp In the snug small room; yea, when
She sang with lips that trembled,
       &nbsp “Shall I see his face again?”