Thomas Hardy — His Country

[He travels southward, and looks around;] I journeyed from my native spot         Across the south sea shine, And found that people in hall and cot Laboured and suffered each his lot         Even as I did mine. [and cannot discern the boundary] Thu        s noting them in meads and marts It did not seem to me That my dear country with its hearts, Minds, yearnings, worse and better parts         Had ended with the sea. [of his native country;] I further and further went anon,          As such I still surveyed, And further yet—yea, on and on, And all the men I looked upon         Had heart-strings fellow-made. [or where his duties to his fellow-creatures end;] I traced the whole terrestrial round,         Homing the other side; Then said I, "What is there to bound My denizenship? It seems I have found         Its scope to be world-wide." [nor who are his enemies] I asked me: "Whom have I to fight,         And whom have I to dare, And whom to weaken, crush, and blight? My country seems to have kept in sight         On my way everywhere." 1913.