They would not come Thomas Hardy

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!