Thomas Hardy — They would not come

I travelled to where in her lifetime        &nbsp She’d knelt at morning prayer,        &nbsp To call her up as if there; But she paid no heed to my suing, As though her old haunt could win not        &nbsp A thought from her spirit, or care. I went where my friend had lectioned        &nbsp The prophets in high declaim,        &nbsp That my soul’s ear the same Full tones should catch as aforetime; But silenced by gear of the Present        &nbsp Was the voice that once there came! Where the ocean had sprayed our banquet        &nbsp I stood, to recall it as then:        &nbsp The same eluding again! No vision. Shows contingent Affrighted it further from me        &nbsp Even than from my home-den. When I found them no responders,        &nbsp But fugitives prone to flee        &nbsp From where they had used to be, It vouched I had been led hither As by night wisps in bogland,        &nbsp And bruised the heart of me!