He does not think that I haunt here nightly: <br />How shall I let him know <br />That whither his fancy sets him wandering <br />I, too, alertly go? - <br />Hover and hover a few feet from him <br />Just as I used to do, <br />But cannot answer his words addressed me - <br />Only listen thereto! <br /> <br /> <br />When I could answer he did not say them: <br />When I could let him know <br />How I would like to join in his journeys <br />Seldom he wished to go. <br />Now that he goes and wants me with him <br />More than he used to do, <br />Never he sees my faithful phantom <br />Though he speaks thereto. <br /> <br /> <br />Yes, I accompany him to places <br />Only dreamers know, <br />Where the shy hares show their faces, <br />Where the night rooks go; <br />Into old aisles where the past is all to him, <br />Close as his shade can do, <br />Always lacking the power to call to him, <br />Near as I reach thereto! <br /> <br /> <br />What a good haunter I am, O tell him, <br />Quickly make him know <br />If he but sigh since my loss befell him <br />Straight to his side I go. <br />And if it be that at night I am stronger, <br />Go, too, by day I do: <br />Please, then, keep him in gloom no longer, <br />Even ghosts tend thereto!<br /><br />Thomas Hardy<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-haunter/
