The To-Be-Forgotten by Thomas Hardy Lyrics

I

        I heard a small sad sound,
And stood awhile amid the tombs around:
"Wherefore, old friends," said I, "are ye distrest,
        Now, screened from life's unrest?"

II

        —"O not at being here;
But that our future second death is drear;
When, with the living, memory of us numbs,
        And blank oblivion comes!

III

        "Those who our grandsires be
Lie here embraced by deeper death than we;
Nor shape nor thought of theirs canst thou descry
        With keenest backward eye.
IV

        "They bide as quite forgot;
They are as men who have existed not;
Theirs is a loss past loss of fitful breath;
        It is the second death.

V

        "We here, as yet, each day
Are blest with dear recall; as yet, alway
In some soul hold a loved continuance
        Of shape and voice and glance.

VI

        "But what has been will be -
First memory, then oblivion's turbid sea;
Like men foregone, shall we merge into those
        Whose story no one knows.

VII

        "For which of us could hope
To show in life that world-awakening scope
Granted the few whose memory none lets die,
        But all men magnify?
VIII

        "We were but Fortune's sport;
Things true, things lovely, things of good report
We neither shunned nor sought . . . We see our bourne,
        And seeing it we mourn."