Thomas Hardy — The casual acquaintance

While he was here in breath and bone,        &nbsp To speak to and to see, Would I had known - more clearly known -        &nbsp What that man did for me When the wind scraped a minor lay,        &nbsp And the spent west from white To gray turned tiredly, and from gray        &nbsp To broadest bands of night! But I saw not, and he saw not        &nbsp What shining life-tides flowed To me-ward from his casual jot        &nbsp Of service on that road. He would have said: “’Twas nothing new;        &nbsp We all do what we can; ’Twas only what one man would do        &nbsp For any other man.” Now that I gauge his goodliness        &nbsp He’s slipped from human eyes; And when he passed there’s none can guess,        &nbsp Or point out where he lies.