Thomas Hardy
He Follows Himself
In a heavy time I dogged myself
  Along a louring way,
Till my leading self to my following self
  Said: “Why do you hang on me
    So harassingly?”
“I have watched you, Heart of mine,” I cried,
  “So often going astray
And leaving me, that I have pursued,
  Feeling such truancy
    Ought not to be.”
He said no more, and I dogged him on
  From noon to the dun of day
By prowling paths, until anew
  He begged: “Please turn and flee! -
    What do you see?”
“Methinks I see a man,” said I,
  “Dimming his hours to gray.
I will not leave him while I know
  Part of myself is he
    Who dreams such dree!”
“I go to my old friend’s house,” he urged,
  “So do not watch me, pray!”
“Well, I will leave you in peace,” said I,
  “Though of this poignancy
    You should fight free:
“Your friend, O other me, is dead;
  You know not what you say.”
- “That do I! And at his green-grassed door
  By night’s bright galaxy
    I bend a knee.”
- The yew-plumes moved like mockers’ beards,
  Though only boughs were they,
And I seemed to go; yet still was there,
  And am, and there haunt we
    Thus bootlessly.