Thomas Hardy - She, I, And They lyrics

I was sitting, She was knitting, And the portraits of our fore-folk hung around; When there struck on us a sigh; "Ah—what is that?" said I: "Was it not you?" said she. "A sigh did sound." I had not breathed it, Nor the night-wind heaved it, And how it came to us we could not guess; And we looked up at each face Framed and glazed there in its place, Still hearkening; but thenceforth was silentness. Half in dreaming, "Then its meaning," Said we, "must be surely this; that they repine That we should be the last Of stocks once unsurpa**ed, And unable to keep up their sturdy line." 1916.