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She, I, and They

      I was sitting,
      She was knitting,
And the portraits of our fore-folk hung around;
   When there struck on us a sigh;
   "Ah--what is that?" said I:
"Was it not you?" said she.  "A sigh did sound."
      I had not breathed it,
      Nor the night-wind heaved it,
And how it came to us we could not guess;
   And we looked up at each face
   Framed and glazed there in its place,
Still hearkening; but thenceforth was silentness.
      Half in dreaming,
      "Then its meaning,"
Said we, "must be surely this; that they repine
   That we should be the last
   Of stocks once unsurpassed,
And unable to keep up their sturdy line."

1916.

Literature Network » Thomas Hardy » Moments of Vision » She, I, and They