Thomas Hardy — The Tree An Old Mans Story

I Its roots are bristling in the air Like some mad Earth-god's spiny hair; The loud south-wester's swell and yell Smote it at midnight, and it fell.         Thus ends the tree         Where Some One sat with me. II Its boughs, which none but darers trod, A child may step on from the sod, And twigs that earliest met the dawn Are lit the last upon the lawn.         Cart off the tree         Beneath whose trunk sat we! III Yes, there we sat: she cooed content, And bats ringed round, and daylight went; The gnarl, our seat, is wrenched and sunk, Prone that queer pocket in the trunk         Where lay the key         To her pale mystery. IV "Years back, within this pocket-hole I found, my Love, a hurried scrawl Meant not for me," at length said I; "I glanced thereat, and let it lie:         The words were three -         'Beloved, I agree.' V "Who placed it here; to what request It gave assent, I never guessed. Some prayer of some hot heart, no doubt, To some coy maiden hereabout,         Just as, maybe,         With you, Sweet Heart, and me." VI She waited, till with quickened breath She spoke, as one who banisheth Reserves that lovecraft heeds so well, To ease some mighty wish to tell:         "'Twas I," said she,         "Who wrote thus clinchingly. VII "My lover's wife—aye, wife!—knew nought Of what we felt, and bore, and thought . . . He'd said: 'I wed with thee or die: She stands between, 'tis true. But why?         Do thou agree,         And—she shalt cease to be.' VIII "How I held back, how love supreme Involved me madly in his scheme Why should I say? . . . I wrote assent (You found it hid) to his intent . . .         She—DIED . . . But he         Came not to wed with me. IX "O shrink not, Love!—Had these eyes seen But once thine own, such had not been! But we were strangers . . . Thus the plot Cleared passion's path.—Why came he not         To wed with me? . . .         He wived the gibbet-tree." X - Under that oak of heretofore Sat Sweetheart mine with me no more: By many a Fiord, and Strom, and Fleuve Have I since wandered . . . Soon, for love,         Distraught went she -         'Twas said for love of me.