I <br /> <br />As newer comers crowd the fore, <br /> We drop behind. <br />- We who have laboured long and sore <br /> Times out of mind, <br />And keen are yet, must not regret <br /> To drop behind. <br /> <br />II <br /> <br />Yet there are of us some who grieve <br /> To go behind; <br />Staunch, strenuous souls who scarce believe <br /> Their fires declined, <br />And know none cares, remembers, spares <br /> Who go behind. <br /> <br />III <br /> <br />'Tis not that we have unforetold <br /> The drop behind; <br />We feel the new must oust the old <br /> In every kind; <br />But yet we think, must we, must WE, <br /> Too, drop behind?<br /><br />Thomas Hardy<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-superseded/
