Home
Fictions/Novels
Short Stories
Poems
Essays
Plays
 
All Authors
All Titles

Home > Authors Index > Browse all available works of Thomas Hardy > Text of Jog-trot Pair

A poem by Thomas Hardy

A Jog-trot Pair

A Jog-trot Pair


Who were the twain that trod this track
So many times together
Hither and back,
In spells of certain and uncertain weather?

Commonplace in conduct they
Who wandered to and fro here
Day by day:
Two that few dwellers troubled themselves to know here.

The very gravel-path was prim
That daily they would follow:
Borders trim:
Never a wayward sprout, or hump, or hollow.

Trite usages in tamest style
Had tended to their plighting.
"It's just worth while,
Perhaps," they had said. "And saves much sad good-nighting."

And petty seemed the happenings
That ministered to their joyance:
Simple things,
Onerous to satiate souls, increased their buoyance.

Who could those common people be,
Of days the plainest, barest?
They were we;
Yes; happier than the cleverest, smartest, rarest.




-THE END-
Thomas Hardy's poem: A Jog-trot Pair




GO TO TOP OF SCREEN