Thomas Hardy

The Six Boards

Six boards belong to me:
I do not know where they may be;
If growing green, or lying dry
In a cockloft nigh.

Some morning I shall claim them,
And who may then possess will aim them
To bring to me those boards I need
With thoughtful speed.

But though they hurry so
To yield me mine, I shall not know
How well my want they’ll have supplied
When notified.

Those boards and I – how much
In common we, of feel and touch
Shall share thence on, – earth’s far core-quakings,
Hill-shocks, tide-shakings –

Yea, hid where none will note,
The once live tree and man, remote
From mundane hurt as if on Venus, Mars,
Or furthest stars.