Thomas Hardy - At A Seaside Town In 1869 lyrics

(Young Lover's Reverie) I went and stood outside myself, Spelled the dark sky And ship-lights nigh, And grumbling winds that pa**ed thereby. Then next inside myself I looked, And there, above All, shone my Love, That nothing matched the image of. Beyond myself again I ranged; And saw the free Life by the sea, And folk indifferent to me. O 'twas a charm to draw within Thereafter, where But she was; care For one thing only, her hid there! But so it chanced, without myself I had to look, And then I took More heed of what I had long forsook: The boats, the sands, the esplanade, The laughing crowd; Light-hearted, loud Greetings from some not ill-endowed; The evening sunlit cliffs, the talk, Hailings and halts, The keen sea-salts, The band, the Morgenblatter Waltz. Still, when at night I drew inside Forward she came, Sad, but the same As when I first had known her name. Then rose a time when, as by force, Outwardly wooed By contacts crude, Her image in abeyance stood . . . At last I said: This outside life Shall not endure; I'll seek the pure Thought-world, and bask in her allure. Myself again I crept within, Scanned with keen care The temple where She'd shone, but could not find her there. I sought and sought. But O her soul Has not since thrown Upon my own One beam! Yea, she is gone, is gone. From an old note.