Thomas Hardy - A Gentleman's Epitaph on Himself and a Lady lyrics

I dwelt in the shade of a city,   She far by the sea, With folk perhaps good, gracious, witty;   But never with me. Her form on the ballroom's smooth flooring   I never once met, To guide her with accents adoring   Through Weippert's “First Set.” I spent my life's seasons with pale ones   In Vanity Fair, And she enjoyed hers among hale ones   In salt-smelling air. Maybe she had eyes of deep colour,   Maybe they were blue, Maybe as she aged they got duller;   That never I knew. She may have had lips like the coral,   But I never kissed them, Saw pouting, nor curling in quarrel,   Nor sought for, nor missed them. Not a word pa**ed of love all our lifetime,   Between us, nor thrill; We'd never a husband-and-wife time,   For good or for ill. Yet as one dust, through bleak days and vernal,   Lie I and lies she, This never-known lady, eternal   Companion to me!