Thomas Hardy "The Workbox"

"See, here's the workbox, little wife,

  That I made of polished oak."

He was a joiner, of village life;

  She came of borough folk.

 

He holds the present up to her

  As with a smile she nears

And answers to the profferer,

  " 'Twill last all my sewing years!"

 

"I warrant it will. And longer too.

  'Tis a scantling that I got

Off poor John Wayward's coffin, who

  Died of they knew not what.

 

"The shingled pattern that seems to cease

  Against your box's rim

Continues right on in the piece

  That's underground with him.

 

"And while I worked it made me think

  Of timber's varied doom;

One inch where people eat and drink,

  The next inch in a tomb.

 

"But why do you look so white, my dear,

  And turn aside your face?

You knew not that good lad, I fear,

  Though he came from your native place?"

 

"How could I know that good young man,

  Though he came from my native town,

When he must have left far earlier than

  I was a woman grown?"

 

"Ah, no. I should have understood!

  It shocked you that I gave

To you one end of a piece of wood

  Whose other is in a grave!"

 

"Don't, dear, despise my intellect,

  Mere accidental things

Of that sort never have effect

  On my imaginings."

 

Yet still her lips were limp and wan,

  Her face still held aside,

As if she had known not only John,

  But known of what he died.