A Leaving

by Thomas Hardy (1925) — a poem card from Justes Mots

A brief, devastating poem about watching a funeral car depart in the rain, bearing an unspecified departed loved one, with the speaker haunted by this singular memory despite having witnessed many other such vehicles. Hardy captures the way grief fixes on particular moments and losses, unable to be forgotten. Suitable for those in acute mourning, struggling with the permanence of specific losses.

KNOWING what it bore
I watched the rain-smitten back
of the car—
(Brown-curtained, such as the old ones
were)—
When it started forth for a journey afar
Into the sullen November air,
And passed the glistening laurels and…

Themes: sympathy · grief · reflection